Mixed messaging around COVID vaccine boosters worries B.C. doctor

With worries about another wave of COVID-19 sweeping through B.C. in the months ahead, a top infectious diseases expert is concerned about mixed messaging around the need for another booster shot.

“I think everyone is tired, everyone wants COVID to be finished and be gone, and we have worked so hard to get where we are,” said Dr. Brian Conway, president and medical director of the Vancouver Infectious Disease Centre.

He tells CityNews we need to keep up with some simple protections against the virus, including staying up to date with vaccinations and boosters for anyone who is eligible for them. But he worries people are tuning out.

“I would ask the experts, Dr. Bonnie Henry and her colleagues all across Canada, to get together because right now it’s confusing, the different rules from territory to territory, province to province. Everyone says they are based on science and they are coming to different conclusions. That’s confusing even for people like me,” Conway said.

He wants the experts to spell out where they agree, where they disagree, and how they will address those disagreements going forward.

“The risk you run by having these different messages is people just check out and don’t get the vaccines at all. That is my biggest concern and that is why I would invite them to get together as soon as possible and lay out a clear message for all Canadians.”

However, Conway suggests waiting a few months for the latest COVID-19 booster in B.C. isn’t a bad thing.

“By the fall, both Pfizer and Moderna will have an adapted vaccination that will be more effective against the Omicron variant and its descendants — the BA.4 and probably the BA.5 — that will probably be the next shot.”

Currently everyone over the age of 70, Indigenous people aged 55 and up, and people who are clinically extremely vulnerable have had access to fourth doses in B.C. The province unveiled last week plans for people 12 and older to start receiving their second booster shots come September, thought some may be able to get the jab sooner.

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

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While the province maintains that vaccinations are the best protection against COVID, Conway asserts they are only part of four simple steps needed to help protect people from the virus.

“Get your shots if you haven’t gotten them, stay home if you are sick, have a mask on your person to wear when it is appropriate to do so, and keep washing your hands as you’ve learned to do because that reduces the transmission of all infections,” he said.

“That’s the personal responsibility part and I think if we take that seriously, we all together have a fighting chance to have a very good summer.”

-With files from Liza Yuzda