Anxiety over second booster waits, as some in B.C. use U.S. option to get fourth shot

With a second booster more widely available in other jurisdictions, some people are voicing their frustration with the speed of B.C.’s rollout.

Then there are others who are getting creative to ensure they get maximum vaccine protection.

The magic trick for Port Moody’s Scott Montague was to cross the border into Washington state for his third shot.

Given he has asthma, Montague decided to go for the initial booster earlier down south rather than wait for B.C. to catch up.

“So we went down to the United States with our Canadian proof of our first two vaccines, and signed up, and the U.S. gives away free shots to anyone who happens to be in the country, whether they’re citizens or not,” Montague told CityNews, adding that he was also provided with free N95 masks while in the U.S.

And then because the B.C. system hadn’t logged that shot, he was able to get his fourth shot up here.

“There’s a lot of people who got their first booster over six months ago now,” Montague said, noting he got his shot at a pharmacy in the U.S. “Many of those people are clinically sensitive, like myself, to having more complications.”

Related links:

• Canada could approve first COVID vaccine for youngest kids this month: feds
• Number of B.C. health care workers off sick rising, province bracing for COVID in the fall

One of the people in that position is North Vancouver’s Kim Wooder. She is 63 and has an autoimmune condition, and has been left without the added protection of a second booster. It’s a situation all the more frustrating because a pharmacist told her she can get that fourth shot if she is booked for a cruise.

“It makes no sense, none of it makes any sense,” Wooder told CityNews, as she said a pharmacist told her shots are being thrown out as they expire. “The cruise thing — I was already frustrated, I was already a bit frustrated, knowing I would have to go through some paperwork to even be able to attempt to get my fourth dose — and then I heard that, I thought alright, we’ve gone from the ridiculous to the sublime, or maybe the other way around.”

This week, Health Minister Adrian Dix suggested we’ll have to wait until fall for the full scale rollout of fourth shots. But that’s too long a wait, insists Wooder.

“I was a believer, I got on the bandwagon, I was very supportive of the government,” Wooder said. “When (Provincial Health Officer Dr.) Bonnie Henry was doing a great job, we all bought the t-shirts and applauded her new shoes. We did the thing. But now they have to catch up (with the science and other jurisdictions).”

At present, the province is only providing second boosters to those 70 years of age or older, Indigenous people over 55, as well as people in long term care — that’s assuming it’s been six months or longer since their third shot.