Alberta and Saskatchewan have both asked for J&J doses to reach vaccine hesitant people who don’t want to take mRNA vaccines
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OTTAWA – The federal government said it donated a contract for ten million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine earlier this year after getting a clear sign from provinces that they weren’t interested in the vaccine.
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But now, faced with a small number of vaccine hesitant individuals waiting for the shot, the government is searching for J&J doses.
One senior government official who spoke to the National Post on the condition they not be named, said they focused on Pfizer and Moderna deliveries because that was what provinces and the public were looking for.
“Provinces and territories told us they didn’t want Johnson & Johnson,” they said.
On August 12, the government announced Canada’s 10 million-dose order of Johnson & Johnson vaccines would be donated to COVAX, an international group pushing to vaccinate the developing world. The source said that donation was made with the provinces’ consent but stressed the provinces were just adapting to a changing situation.
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“They are allowed to change their mind.”
Johnson & Johnson has not yet delivered on that shipment, so it might be possible to get some of the COVAX doses diverted to Canada when the delivery comes through, but the government is also looking elsewhere.
Alberta and Saskatchewan have both asked the federal government for Johnson & Johnson doses to reach vaccine hesitant people who don’t want to take mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna.
Alberta Health spokesperson Lisa Glover said they have asked the federal government for some of the doses, hoping to get more people vaccinated.
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“Alberta has requested up to 20,000 doses of Janssen vaccine, when safely available. We and several other provinces are in discussions with the National Operations Centre, and we’re hopeful that we’ll receive an initial supply soon,” she said.
The federal government ordered hundreds of millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines from multiple companies, but the vast majority of the shots that actually went into Canadians arms were either Pfizer or Moderna.
The mRNA vaccines are safe and highly effective against the virus, but some vaccine hesitant people have expressed concern because the vaccines are based on a relatively new technology. Online conspiracies have suggested the mRNA vaccines can alter DNA, but that is not supported by science.
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Johnson & Johnson was the fourth vaccine maker to receive regulatory approval in Canada and an initial delivery of 300,000 doses was received in April, but U.S. regulators later uncovered quality control issues with the manufacturing facilities for those vaccines and the government didn’t distribute those doses.
The company is expected to have more doses of its vaccine in the fall, but it cut its original production estimate for this year in half.
While the company worked to resolve its manufacturing issues, Canada was flooded with doses from Pfizer and Moderna, tens of millions of shots in May, June and July, allowing most Canadians to get vaccinated and giving Canada one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.
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Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine initially showed it had a 66 per cent efficacy rate at preventing people from getting COVID-19, lower than Pfizer or Modena, but it was shown to be nearly 100 per cent effective at preventing hospitalization.
The vaccine was initially planned as a single dose regimen, but the company recently applied to American regulators to have it given as a booster shot, with a second dose increasing the vaccine’s effectiveness.
The government also had large contracts for AstraZeneca vaccines and imported about two million doses of that shot, but most provinces stopped administering it after concerns arose about extremely rare blood clots.
Despite those concerns, the AstraZeneca vaccine was the workhorse of the U.K.’s vaccine rollout, helping that country get widespread coverage earlier than most nations.
Canada is also waiting on other vaccines from Novavax and Medicago, two other vaccines that are still in the regulatory review stage.
Both companies have submitted some data on their vaccines, but Health Canada is awaiting additional information from both firms.
• Email: rtumilty@postmedia.com | Twitter:
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Federal government now searching for Johnson and Johnson vaccine after donating 10 million doses in summer - National Post
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