Some Canadians Are Being 'Strongly' Advised To Get Another COVID-19 Booster Dose This Fall
The NACI says it should be offered to almost all Canadians.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) has released a new statement that recommends, among other things, a fall COVID-19 booster shot for specific populations in Canada.
In a notice on June 29, the public health organization — made up of experts in infectious diseases, public health, pediatrics, immunology and more — issued a "strong recommendation" that key vulnerable communities are granted access to another COVID-19 booster shot this fall.
The groups they recommend should be offered the shot are those over the age of 65, those who live in old-age homes or "congregated living settings for seniors," and those over 12 with underlying medical conditions that put them at high risk for severe COVID-19.
The recommendations also call for the booster to be offered to adults in or from First Nation, Metis, or Inuit communities, adults in racialized and marginalized communities disproportionally affected by COVID-19 and those, over 12, who live in any congregated living settings.
Along with this, the NACI also issued a "discretionary recommendation" that calls for boosters to be potentially available to even more people.
It states that a COVID-19 booster "may be offered" to everyone between the ages of 12 to 64, regardless of how many boosters they've had in the past.
And the third recommendation, also a discretionary one, is that boosters may be dolled out six months after a previous COVID-19 vaccine or infection. But, there's an option for that interval to be shortened down to 3 months due to "heightened epidemiological risk."
These recommendations come from the possibility that, as Canadians move indoors in the fall and winter months, COVID-19 numbers could rise.
Along with this comes the worry of the emergence of new variants or subvariants, another reason why the organization is calling for the booster.
So, to try to limit the impact of that potential influx of infection, the organization says we should focus our resources on getting boosters out to those who need them most.
Canada has plans to change what is considered a fully vaccinated person. On June 14, Canadian officials said that Canadians may move to have an "up-to-date" definition of vaccination — which is two COVID-19 vaccines plus one or two boosters.
This isn't the only vaccine news going on right now, as due to a recent uptick in monkeypox cases around the world, the United States has issued a vaccine for that disease which it is expected to start administering soon.