Ontario reviewing 2nd dose timeline for COVID-19 vaccine

Ontario is looking at adjusting the timeline for the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, following reports that the first shot isn’t providing an adequate amount of protection to some people who are immunocompromised.

Right now, Canada is delaying administering second doses to recipients until four months after the first jab.

Kristen Evans received a life-saving kidney transplant just six months ago. She’s scheduled to receive her first dose of the vaccine Saturday but her mind is already on when she’ll receive her second dose.

“I need that second dose to make sure I have a fighting chance of being able to get my life back and to keep my health in the condition it is right now because I don’t want it to go back to the way it was before,” Evans said.

A study released earlier this month from Johns Hopkins University and published in The Journal of The American Medical Association suggests that the first dose isn’t proving effective for organ transplant recipients. It states that “patients may remain at higher early risk for COVID-19 despite vaccination.”

A second recently released study, which has yet to be peer reviewed, concludes that delaying the second booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine could leave cancer patients “wholly or partially unprotected”.

When questioned by CityNews, Ontario’s top doctors admit the emerging studies have their attention.

“We have a clinical advisory group that we are working with to look at this and to identify if there are any specific groups who should have a shorter interval between the two doses,” Ontario’s Deputy Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe said.

Yaffe said she expects new recommendations out in the next week or two.

The assistant scientific director of Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table Dr. Nathan Stall suggested the province has the capability to pivot and rework the vaccine schedule for those who need a second dose sooner.

“They are evaluating evidence as it arrives and they will make decisions based on that,” Stall said. “This is the nature of evidence in real time.”

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization has announced they’re also reviewing the data around first dose efficacy rates for immunocompromised Canadians.

For Evans, the pandemic has been a painful marathon. Her second dose of the vaccine is currently scheduled for July.

“I went from being too sick to go out to being terrified that I’m going to get infected with COVID and jeopardizing the health that I’ve just regained,” she said.