New Vax news could prevent COVID, flu crisis: expert

The start of flu season with low uptake of bivalent COVID-19 vaccines is a reason to refresh public health communications in Manitoba, says a Winnipeg epidemiologist.

“Rather than just repeating that vaccines are available for these ages in these places, it might help to shake it up a bit,” Cynthia Carr said.

Provincial public health officials, including Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin, should build on the familiarity they’ve built with Manitobans over the past two years through regular public appearances and drawing on opinion poll results, she suggested. It would help respond to popular belief about vaccine effectiveness or low-risk infections, preventing the widespread “apathy or confusion” that many Canadians now feel about the bivalent vaccines, Carr said.

“It doesn’t have to be about corrections. It’s a conversation. There’s a lot of truth in what people believe. Most of us know many people who have had very, very mild COVID. That’s a good thing, but we have to remember that most of us are vaccinated.”

Uptake has remained low since the first bivalent doses became available to all adults in Manitoba on September 22. As of Oct. 8, 3.5 percent of eligible Manitobans had received a bivalent booster dose, according to the provincial government’s most recent Weekly Epidemiological Report. This percentage amounts to more than 40,000 doses. As of Oct. 5, 40,585 doses of Moderna’s bivalent vaccine had been administered in Manitoba, a provincial spokesman said.

The exact number of doses distributed to pharmacies across Manitoba has not been publicly disclosed. The bivalent vaccine is available at about 130 pharmacies, medical clinics and vaccination sites in Winnipeg, 15 of which are pop-up clinics that accept appointments. The province’s vaccine finder website shows a total of 375 vaccination sites across Manitoba.

Now in the fourth week of its bivalent advertising campaign, the province has run ads in newspapers, radio, social media and billboards to encourage people to take the shot.

Manitoba may not see a significant increase in intakes barring another crisis, Carr said, describing the risk that vaccine campaigns could become a “victim of their own success.”

“That’s always a challenge for vaccination campaigns, that you get everyone’s attention – whether it’s time, resources and participation – when there’s a crisis,” she said.

“But if things sort of level out or don’t seem so scary – even though there’s a lot of COVID – people just don’t participate.”

Finding new ways to communicate on social media could improve the province’s reach, Carr suggested, and improve uptake so hospitals aren’t hit by a simultaneous fall and winter wave of COVID-19 and flu patients. She said public health officials should look at responses from Canadian public surveys and give people the data they need, particularly on the prevalence of long-lived COVID and the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing long-term symptoms.

“How do we continue the conversation? It doesn’t have to be expensive, but it has to be innovative and respect the trust that’s built,” she said.

“Update the dynamic between government, public health and community members.”

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