New Brunswick racing ahead of federal guidance on second boosters

New Brunswick Public Health is racing ahead of expert federal advice with its decision to expand eligibility for second COVID-19 boosters to people as young as 50.

The province announced the expansion of the second-booster program last Friday, despite the National Advisory Committee on Immunization taking a slower approach by recommending a second-booster campaign for people 80 and older.

And University of Ottawa epidemiologist Raywat Deonandan says the province is making the right call.

"Maybe they have done their analysis for their particular region and determined that a larger demographic is at greater risk that the national scope would suggest," he said.

"Scientifically, you would err on the side of pandemic caution by going faster." 

The federal committee said boosters in the general population may be needed by fall and doing anything before that could be sooner than necessary.

"Planning should take into account that vaccine deployment may be required for broader population groups in the fall of 2022 or earlier depending on the COVID-19 pandemic context," it said in its April 5 report.

Canada's chief public health officer, Theresa Tam, repeated that in a briefing Tuesday, saying three doses of vaccine are important and a fourth is important "for the highest risk."

Despite that, the province announced that second boosters will be available to people 50 and up starting next week, April 19.

Its news release said the decision was based on "released initial guidance from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI)."

It also cited "demographic, epidemiologic, chronic disease burden, and hospitalization data specific to New Brunswick," though the province isn't saying exactly what the data show.

Department of Health spokesperson Bruce Macfarlane said NACI's advice is only advice, and provinces can choose to move faster based on "their local risk assessment."

He said New Brunswick's aging population means it has a larger share of people over the age of 50 than many other provinces. And he said people over 50 make up 82 per cent of COVID  hospitalizations to date in the province.  People 50 to 59 years old account for 13 per cent of all hospitalizations, he said. 

"We expect the second booster for this age group will help to protect many New Brunswickers from severe illness and hospitalization," he said.