{"id":851,"date":"2020-12-04T01:01:40","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T01:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/noveltimes\/?p=851"},"modified":"2020-12-13T23:57:55","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T23:57:55","slug":"rolling-out-the-first-covid-19-vaccines-in-canada-according-to-a-bioethicist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/noveltimes\/2020\/12\/04\/rolling-out-the-first-covid-19-vaccines-in-canada-according-to-a-bioethicist\/","title":{"rendered":"Rolling out the first COVID-19 vaccines in Canada, according to a bioethicist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”-28px|||||”]

Six million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine are expected to be rolled out in Canada in the first quarter of 2021. (Photo by <\/span>Daniel Schludi<\/span><\/a> on <\/span>Unsplash)<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default”]

MONTREAL \u2013 As members of the new vaccine task forces, bioethicists are helping roll out the first COVID-19 vaccines in Canada.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bioethicists are people who aim to \u201cidentify, evaluate and come up with solutions to important ethical problems that are facing us in healthcare systems of broader society,\u201d says Bryn<\/span> Williams-Jones, director of the bioethics program and professor in the school of public health at the University of Montreal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ontario has also included a bioethicist on its vaccine distribution <\/span>task force.<\/span><\/a> Bioethicists can also provide important advice on who gets vaccines first.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>According to Williams-Jones, bioethicists must ask many questions before they can build focused recommendations and figure out who should get the vaccine first. They need to consider who needs the vaccine most, who the vaccine is most effective for and what we know about the vaccine, among other things, he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t ask these questions, we don\u2019t know that there\u2019s a problem and we don\u2019t know that we\u2019re making trade-offs and then we make bad decisions.\u201d Asking questions is what makes the process ethical, he adds.<\/span><\/p>\n

A process that will be rolling out in the new year, according to officials, with some Health Canada-approved vaccines expected to become available in early 2021.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||0px|||”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”-24px|||||”]

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Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, vice-president of logistics and operations of the Public Health Agency of Canada, said Canada would be ready for distribution by January.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Health Canada is reviewing vaccines by Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen Inc. Once one is approved, six million doses are expected to arrive within the first three months of 2021, according to Njoo.<\/span><\/p>\n

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization<\/span> preliminary guidance<\/span><\/a> recommends vaccinating first those who are at a higher risk of severe disease, those most <\/span>likely to transmit to people at a higher risk, essential workers and those living or working where they are at a higher risk of infection.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The National Advisory Committee on Immunization released in November preliminary guidance on key populations to vaccinate. (Photo by <\/span>CDC<\/span><\/a> on <\/span>Unsplash)<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”|auto|-50px|auto||”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||0px|||”]

According to Rob Kozak, clinical microbiologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, there\u2019s still a lot on the COVID-19 virus and the vaccines that we don\u2019t know about. He says it\u2019s still not clear how long immunity from the vaccines last, how long after vaccination the vaccine becomes effective and whether the vaccine would protect from infection or lower the severity of the disease.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kozak says we shouldn\u2019t see many serious side effects in the new vaccines, but in terms of if there could be any longer term effects, \u201cThe only way to know that is with time,\u201d he adds.<\/span><\/p>\n

Given the unknowns, Williams-Jones says there are several ethical principles to keep in mind when deciding where the vaccines will go.<\/span><\/p>\n

One is the precautionary principle, which means moving forward with decisions with care as you keep researching and looking to know more, he explains. According to Williams-Jones, it\u2019s something that needs to be done better in a case like the development of the COVID-19 vaccine where the research process has been sped up.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re always, in a crisis situation, operating with imperfect information.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

–\u00a0Bryn<\/i> Williams-Jones<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Another is the principle of proportionality. This means that \u201cthe higher the risk, the higher the level of surveillance we need to implement to identify possible risk factors and deal with them very quickly,\u201d says Williams-Jones. The vaccines have gone through very quick trials, but he says that they have to expect side-effects to arise and make sure the mechanisms are in place to detect them.<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”-74px|auto||auto||”][et_pb_column _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default” type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]

A third one is the principle of responsibility.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re always, in a crisis situation, operating with imperfect information,\u201d says Williams-Jones. \u201cYou make the best decision possible, but you recognize that it\u2019s founded on a lack of complete evidence, but it\u2019s the best we can do right now.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

According to him, bioethicists can help decision-makers decide who will be getting the vaccines first and when, but they don\u2019t have the biggest voice. \u201cBioethicists can make an important difference, but they have to be sufficiently highly paced and they\u2019ve got to be at the top in terms of being part of the decision-making process. Not be the rubber stamp at the end after the decision has already been made.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Six million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine are expected to be rolled out in Canada in the first quarter of 2021. (Photo by Daniel Schludi on Unsplash)MONTREAL \u2013 As members of the new vaccine task forces, bioethicists are helping roll out the first COVID-19 vaccines in Canada.\u00a0 Bioethicists are people who aim to \u201cidentify, evaluate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/noveltimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/noveltimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/noveltimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/noveltimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/noveltimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/noveltimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":905,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/noveltimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions\/905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/noveltimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/noveltimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/noveltimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/noveltimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}