Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has a Christmas present for British Columbians, and no, it’s not thousands of health-care workers getting their livelihood back — but rather: more COVID shots..Health authorities announced Tuesday that COVID-19 booster vaccines will soon be available to the general population, making BC the first province in Canada to do so..The announcement comes less than one week after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ensured nationwide booster shots for the coming years..The province says “BC’s elderly and most at-risk” will be prioritized through the December holiday, but as of January 2022, boosters will be available for all British Columbians 12 and older..Those registered in the Get Vaccinated System will receive a notification when it’s time for a booster jab, roughly 6-8 months after their previous dose..“Our vaccines are highly effective. However, we are starting to see a gradual decline in protection over time. As a result, we are taking the proactive step of expanding boosters to everyone in our province,” said Henry..Data from Israel — which has seen a steady increase in COVID-19 infections since June 2021, despite a high vaccination rate — showcases the transient nature of the vaccines efficacy..Israel’s response, in an attempt to get cases down again, was to require booster shots after six months of one’s second dose in order to be considered “fully vaccinated.” Now officials in Israel are discussing the need for dose number four..In BC, booster shots will not be included in the BC Vaccine Card for access to various settings — at least not yet — but the number of British Columbian’s lacking trust in the governments word grows steadily..In May, 2021, Henry said “there is no way that we will recommend inequities be increased by the use of things like vaccine passports for services with public access here in British Columbia.”.Fast forward five months — vaccine passports are now enforced with no medical or religious exemptions, non-compliant businesses are being shut down, and workers are being removed from their jobs by the thousands for not getting the shot..“I bet most politicians in Canada would admit that even they were surprised how malleable much of the public has proven to be,” writes political columnist, Spencer Fernando..“No amount of hypocrisy or shifting narratives seems to stop a large number of Canadians from succumbing to fear-based appeals on the ‘need’ to restrict our rights and freedoms.”.Whether or not the fear is justified remains a point of vigorous dispute among scientists — with some focusing on the accuracy of BC’s testing methods when it comes to the data surrounding COVID deaths, hospitalizations, and positive cases as a whole..“We don’t differentiate people that have died from COVID and have died with it,” said Dr. Steven Pelech, president and chief scientific officer at Kinexus Bioinformatics Corporation, and chair of the Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee at the Canadian Covid Care Alliance in an interview with the Western Standard..Pelech argues the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are poorly done in BC due to a high cycle threshold (CT), which as a result yields a high percentage of false positives, thus crediting an inflated number of deaths to COVID..The PCR test is a tool often used in medical and biological research labs to detect the presence or absence of a gene, and while the test can detect the presence of a virus if you are infected, it can also detect fragments of the virus post infection..The higher the CT, the more likely it is to pick up fragments of inactive viral DNA..“They may very well have the remnants of the viruses genetic material that they breathe in, or they may have already recovered from COVID,” said Pelech..In contrast to Pelech’s words, Medical Director of the BCCDC, Dr. Mel Krajden says a high CT is necessary when using the PCR tests, arguing that despite a potential for false positives, it is needed to detect early infection..“People don’t understand that in early infection you will get at very high CT a very low viral load, and then as the infection progresses you get a high viral load and a low CT,” Krajden told the Western Standard..The test, however, does not differentiate between what may be an early infection vs what may be genetic debris that poses no threat..“High levels of amplification increase your chances of picking up garbage, that’s the problem,” said Pelech..“If you’re around 38 cycles, maybe one out of 10 results at that level is accurate, whereas the rest can be false positives.”.Krajden said the CT varies across jurisdictions in BC, but confirmed it is “typically in the range of 35-42,” and sometimes mid-40’s..The province does not take the probability of false positives into account when reporting its COVID data..Krajden said that regardless of how the PCR test is administered, the point of focus should be from a population prevention perspective, specifically vaccination — hence the booster shots..“The single most effective way of shutting down this pandemic is having a population that is immune,” said Krajden..“The vaccines protect people from severe disease and death, and they do an excellent job at doing that.”.While the actual level of protection against COVID-19 one obtains upon getting vaccinated is debated, it is widely agreed upon that the shots efficacy wanes over time — and that the class of antibodies produced by the jab do not prevent propagation of the virus within the airways..Krajden did say that a vaccinated individual can be asymptomatic and have a high viral load — further confirming that vaccinated people spread the virus, often unknowingly..“After vaccination you have lots of IgG antibodies in your circulation and there is not much at the site where the virus comes in, so you can receive and transmit,” said Pelech..“And as for being a ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated’… nonsense. Total nonsense.”.Reid Small is a BC correspondent for the Western Standard.,rsmall@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/reidsmall
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has a Christmas present for British Columbians, and no, it’s not thousands of health-care workers getting their livelihood back — but rather: more COVID shots..Health authorities announced Tuesday that COVID-19 booster vaccines will soon be available to the general population, making BC the first province in Canada to do so..The announcement comes less than one week after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ensured nationwide booster shots for the coming years..The province says “BC’s elderly and most at-risk” will be prioritized through the December holiday, but as of January 2022, boosters will be available for all British Columbians 12 and older..Those registered in the Get Vaccinated System will receive a notification when it’s time for a booster jab, roughly 6-8 months after their previous dose..“Our vaccines are highly effective. However, we are starting to see a gradual decline in protection over time. As a result, we are taking the proactive step of expanding boosters to everyone in our province,” said Henry..Data from Israel — which has seen a steady increase in COVID-19 infections since June 2021, despite a high vaccination rate — showcases the transient nature of the vaccines efficacy..Israel’s response, in an attempt to get cases down again, was to require booster shots after six months of one’s second dose in order to be considered “fully vaccinated.” Now officials in Israel are discussing the need for dose number four..In BC, booster shots will not be included in the BC Vaccine Card for access to various settings — at least not yet — but the number of British Columbian’s lacking trust in the governments word grows steadily..In May, 2021, Henry said “there is no way that we will recommend inequities be increased by the use of things like vaccine passports for services with public access here in British Columbia.”.Fast forward five months — vaccine passports are now enforced with no medical or religious exemptions, non-compliant businesses are being shut down, and workers are being removed from their jobs by the thousands for not getting the shot..“I bet most politicians in Canada would admit that even they were surprised how malleable much of the public has proven to be,” writes political columnist, Spencer Fernando..“No amount of hypocrisy or shifting narratives seems to stop a large number of Canadians from succumbing to fear-based appeals on the ‘need’ to restrict our rights and freedoms.”.Whether or not the fear is justified remains a point of vigorous dispute among scientists — with some focusing on the accuracy of BC’s testing methods when it comes to the data surrounding COVID deaths, hospitalizations, and positive cases as a whole..“We don’t differentiate people that have died from COVID and have died with it,” said Dr. Steven Pelech, president and chief scientific officer at Kinexus Bioinformatics Corporation, and chair of the Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee at the Canadian Covid Care Alliance in an interview with the Western Standard..Pelech argues the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are poorly done in BC due to a high cycle threshold (CT), which as a result yields a high percentage of false positives, thus crediting an inflated number of deaths to COVID..The PCR test is a tool often used in medical and biological research labs to detect the presence or absence of a gene, and while the test can detect the presence of a virus if you are infected, it can also detect fragments of the virus post infection..The higher the CT, the more likely it is to pick up fragments of inactive viral DNA..“They may very well have the remnants of the viruses genetic material that they breathe in, or they may have already recovered from COVID,” said Pelech..In contrast to Pelech’s words, Medical Director of the BCCDC, Dr. Mel Krajden says a high CT is necessary when using the PCR tests, arguing that despite a potential for false positives, it is needed to detect early infection..“People don’t understand that in early infection you will get at very high CT a very low viral load, and then as the infection progresses you get a high viral load and a low CT,” Krajden told the Western Standard..The test, however, does not differentiate between what may be an early infection vs what may be genetic debris that poses no threat..“High levels of amplification increase your chances of picking up garbage, that’s the problem,” said Pelech..“If you’re around 38 cycles, maybe one out of 10 results at that level is accurate, whereas the rest can be false positives.”.Krajden said the CT varies across jurisdictions in BC, but confirmed it is “typically in the range of 35-42,” and sometimes mid-40’s..The province does not take the probability of false positives into account when reporting its COVID data..Krajden said that regardless of how the PCR test is administered, the point of focus should be from a population prevention perspective, specifically vaccination — hence the booster shots..“The single most effective way of shutting down this pandemic is having a population that is immune,” said Krajden..“The vaccines protect people from severe disease and death, and they do an excellent job at doing that.”.While the actual level of protection against COVID-19 one obtains upon getting vaccinated is debated, it is widely agreed upon that the shots efficacy wanes over time — and that the class of antibodies produced by the jab do not prevent propagation of the virus within the airways..Krajden did say that a vaccinated individual can be asymptomatic and have a high viral load — further confirming that vaccinated people spread the virus, often unknowingly..“After vaccination you have lots of IgG antibodies in your circulation and there is not much at the site where the virus comes in, so you can receive and transmit,” said Pelech..“And as for being a ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated’… nonsense. Total nonsense.”.Reid Small is a BC correspondent for the Western Standard.,rsmall@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/reidsmall
