The next COVID-19 vaccination campaigns must target more people at risk for complications, believe experts, noting a weariness among citizens who are no longer listening to the prevention discourse.
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“We cannot continuously vaccinate the population,” believes Dr. Karl Weiss, epidemiologist and infectiologist at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. We will have to introduce variable geometry vaccination.
“A strategy is needed for the vulnerable population,” agrees epidemiologist Kevin L’Espérance.
On Tuesday, the Quebec government launched a campaign for the fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
A ras le bol
However, several specialists note a fatigue in the population and believe that the strategy needs to be reviewed.
In fact, many citizens who have received two or three doses of vaccine and still had COVID-19 without being very ill do not see the point of a new dose.
“There are people who no longer listen. You’re fed up with that, notes Bryn Williams-Jones, director of the School of Public Health at the University of Montreal. We need to change the discourse.”
In her opinion, targeted vaccination campaigns for people at risk (elderly, sick, etc.) would be more effective in the future than convincing everyone to get vaccinated every time.
“To continue to be effective, we need to properly identify and reach out to people at risk,” says Williams-Jones, who has lamented cuts in public health budgets for decades.
-Listen dr. Karl Weiss, microbiologist and infectious disease specialist at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, in an interview with ASlexandre Dubé:
Elsewhere not the same
Additionally, several countries recommend the booster dose only for people aged 50 and over, Le Journal noted. Nevertheless, these countries use the same vaccines as here.
“The lack of consistency is a problem and it hurts public confidence because we don’t understand it,” Mr. Williams-Jones said. For people to start a process, you have to understand.”
As a reminder, the fourth dose protects against the severe form of the disease, but does not prevent people from catching COVID-19.
On this subject, Dr. Weiss believes that people under the age of 60 in good health who have already received two or three doses of the vaccine (in addition to the disease) do not need to have the fourth dose right away.
“These people have protection against the serious illness for a certain period of time,” believes the specialist, who recommends waiting for the new, more effective bivalent vaccine in a few months.
But a public health specialist studying the long COVID insists on the importance of booster doses.
“As a precautionary principle, it is better to vaccinate the entire population,” says Roxane Borgès Da Silva. The collective risks and the long COVID, we don’t talk about it enough.
– In collaboration with Charles Mathieu, agency QMI.
CANADA
ontario
►People over the age of 18
Quebec
► Persons aged 18 and over
Manitoba
► Persons over 50 years of age
► People from Aboriginal communities aged 30 and over
alberta
► Persons aged 18 and over
Saskatchewan
► Persons aged 18 and over
British Columbia
► Persons over 70 years of age
► People from Aboriginal communities aged 55 and over
Prince Edward Island
► All ages 12 and up
New Brunswick
► Persons aged 18 and over
Newfoundland and Labrador
► Persons over 50 years of age
Nova Scotia
► Persons over 50 years of age
Yukon
► Persons aged 18 and over
Nunavut
► Persons aged 18 and over
Northwest Territories
► Persons over 50 years of age
UNITED STATES
► Persons over 50 years of age
BRAZIL
► Persons over 50 years of age
CHILE
► Persons aged 18 and over
United Kingdom
► Persons over 50 years of age
FRANCE
► Persons over 60 years of age
SOUTH KOREA
► Persons over 50 years of age
AUSTRALIA
► Persons over 30 years of age
► Persons over 50 years of age
Sources: media, government websites
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