Dr. Teresa Tam says LTC residents need to continue to be protected

With the initial quarter million doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine set to arrive next week facts are now being given in terms of who will get it and when. The distribution will be limited to those at the highest risk. Location is also something that will limit who gets it as well as the storage requirements of the Pfizer Vaccine candidate are tough. Each dose must be kept at a super cold temperate of minus 70 degrees Celsius.

Chief Medical Officer of Health says that residents in places like long term care homes will have to continue to be protected by existing health measures for now.

“It is true that you cannot move residents very easily from a long term care facility to a vaccination site. In the meantime you need to keep protecting Long Term Care facilities using all the public health measures necessary. including testing screening and personal protective equipment to protect our elders.”

For those that worry about side effects of the vaccine Dr. Tam says the clinic trial was undertaken with a considerable amount of people.

“The clinic trials are really quite big compared to other vaccine trials. 30 to 40,000 in each. We will see from the regulatory authorities what kind of side effects might be experienced. We haven’t heard of any serious side effects so far; which is great. When you begin to roll it out to millions of people even rare side effects need to be detected.”

One key thing to remember about this vaccine is that it is a 2 dose version. It takes receiving both 21 days and another 10 day wait on average to achieve immunity.