'Living with it': How vaccines and booster doses could get Sask. past the COVID-19 pandemic

REGINA -

As Health Canada is expected to approve the use of Pfizer for kids in the coming weeks, some health experts say the approval could help Saskatchewan boost its vaccination numbers and move past the fourth wave.

Saskatchewan continues to have the lowest vaccination rate in the country with 80 per cent of eligible residents fully vaccinated.

“As we see the percentage of the population immunized continues to go up that in my opinion is key to getting past this pandemic,” said Dr. Joseph Blondeau, head of clinical microbiology at the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon.

“If we want to get over 90 per cent of the population immunized children have to be part of that as well”

According to Blondeau, the province likely needs to have 90 per cent of the population fully vaccinated in order to reach herd immunity.

About 20 per cent of Saskatchewan’s population is made up of people 14 years old and younger, according to Statistics Canada. Most that fall under that category are not yet eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Once they are eligible, Blondeau says that will be an important group to target to keep both kids and their families protected.

“We do realize that children tend to not get as sick as adults from this virus and fewer of them require hospitalization or the intensive care, but it’s not zero per cent,” Blondeau said.

“It’s important that we vaccinate as many people in the population as we can in order to reduce those reservoirs for potential carriers of the virus and subsequent transmission to other individuals.”

The United States has already approved Pfizer for kids aged five to 11. Health Canada is reviewing the vaccine and expected to approve the shot soon.

Pending Canada’s approval, the government says Saskatchewan could receive vaccine shipments later this month.

Health Minister Paul Merriman says the government is not considering a vaccine mandate for students to attend school. However, he is encouraging kids to get the vaccine as soon as they are eligible. He says the health authority is working on a vaccine education campaign for youth.

“This is well into the news and kids are paying attention to what their parents are talking about so we want to make sure that they’re educated,” Merriman said.

As kids wait to receive their first dose, people who are 65 and older or from a certain demographic are already eligible for a booster shot.

Volker Gerdts, the director of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) at the University of Saskatchewan, says booster shots will be necessary for everyone as the world moves past the pandemic.

“I don’t think it’s possible to eradicate this virus,” Gerdts said.

“We’ll have to live with it and living with it means we might have to use booster shots on an annual basis or maybe every second year.”

VIDO is working to develop its own booster vaccine that could be used with any of the approved COVID-19 vaccines. Gerdts says the organization is hoping to start clinical trials for it in Canada early next year.

“We are making a protein supplement vaccine and those, in fact, are scientifically proven vaccine types that can be used as boosters to other types,” Gerdts said.

According to Gerdts, VIDO’s booster vaccine could be combined with the flu shot every year.

However, just like the annual flu vaccine, VIDO’s booster shot may have to be altered.

“For some of these variants, we see that the existing vaccines work very well so there is no need to further adjust them,” Gerdts said.

“But in the future there might be a new variant that requires that we adjust the vaccines.”