Don’t wait for potential Omicron booster — Delta still dominant, top doctors say
Global News
NACI 'strongly' recommends adults aged 50 years and up get a COVID-19 booster shot -- and Canada's top doctors say despite the unknowns about Omicron, boosters do help fight Delta.
The jury’s still out on whether the Omicron variant can evade the protection offered by existing COVID-19 vaccines — but the continued spread of the Delta variant makes getting your booster shot important, Canada’s top doctors said Friday.
Their comments came as Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) “strongly” recommended that adults aged 50 years and up be offered a booster shot. They said Canadians aged between 18 and 49 “may be offered” a booster too — six months after their second dose.
“Omicron is really not widespread in Canada. It’s very new,” said Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Njoo, speaking in French on Friday.
“But right now, Delta is our variant of concern — and the vaccines we are currently administering are effective against serious illness and effective against Delta. Today’s recommendations on booster shots are to help improve people’s protection against COVID-19.”
Njoo added that the Omicron variant is “still being studied” and researchers are “trying to understand its implications,” particularly in three areas: transmissibility, severity, and impact on vaccines. Depending on what they find, it’s possible that the experts “might come out with other vaccines more adapted to Omicron, or other variants,” Njoo said.
“But that lies in the future. For now, it’s really important to point out that it’s not a good idea to wait for another vaccine to come out later on, because it’ll take several months at least,” he explained.
“For now it’s really important to deal with the situation head-on.”
The world will have more information on whether the Omicron COVID-19 variant is more transmissible than other variants “within days,” a top World Health Organization official said on Wednesday.
