B.C. COVID-19: Vaccines, boosters key to ending pandemic, says expert

As we enter a new year amid a pandemic, it’s likely B.C. will continue to see case counts rise amid the spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant.

But an infectious diseases specialist says we can change the outcome of this fifth wave if we ramp up vaccinations and booster shots, and if British Columbians continue on with best practices to limit spread of the virus.

“We need to vaccinate so much more quickly than we ever have before. That’s going to be the key to our success,” Dr. Brian Conway with the Vancouver Infectious Disease Centre explained. “Second is we need to learn to behave. And when I say behave, it’s understand it’s COVID world and be very cautious in our day-to-day lives.”

B.C. broke several records for daily case counts in December, and it’s expected numbers will continue to be high heading into January with the highly transmissible Omicron variant circulating.

Some experts, including Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, have expressed their hopes that this variant could mark the beginning of the end of this pandemic, with this latest virus mutation resulting in milder symptoms for many, especially those who are vaccinated.

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Conway also hopes that will be the case.

“There will be very broad immunity to Omicron that will be acquired,” Conway said of recently high case numbers and rapid spread.

“We know, unfortunately, that immunity from natural infection isn’t necessarily long-lived, so someone would have to explain to me why that would be different with Omicron, and that’s why we vaccinate people who’ve been infected, right? And we still have over half the world that’s unvaccinated and growing new variants. So until we address those two issues, I think we still need to be careful.”

He admits the coming months may be difficult to accept, with case counts continuing to trend on the higher side.

Conway just hopes the rapid transmission won’t strain the health-care system to the point we’ve seen in previous waves.

“It may be that Omicron truly does cause more mild disease, although when you get to very high case numbers, even if it’s a small proportion that gets very sick, that ends up being a lot of people,” he told CityNews.

On Friday, during B.C.’s final COVID-19 update of 2021, the province announced it was going to speed up the rollout of booster shots, while also expediting appointments for people who are pregnant.

The province admitted many people have gone beyond the six month timeline since their second shot.

Meanwhile, Dr. Penny Ballem, the executive lead of B.C.’s COVID-19 Immunization Program, noted thousands of people who had received an invitation for a booster had yet to RSVP for an appointment.

“In spite of our invitations, we have about 240,000 people who have received an invitation over the course of the last few weeks — since Oct. 27 — and have still not booked an appointment. To them, I really want to encourage you. You had an invite, we continue to send you reminders, please book your vaccination,” Ballem said Friday.