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By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Bungled messaging on AstraZeneca will hurt vaccine rollout

May 5, 2021 | 5:28 AM

KAMLOOPS  — CANADIANS CAN BE FORGIVEN for feeling exasperated over the advice they’re getting on COVID-19 vaccines.

The story is a familiar one. Health experts forcefully say we should do a certain thing, only to change their minds. Either that, or one expert says one thing and another says something else.

The newest example is the AstraZeneca vaccine. Despite concerns, health authorities across the country have been telling us to take it if we can get it. As long as we’re in the right age group, of course.

The benefits far outweigh the risks, they’ve said. Take the first vaccine we’re offered, they’ve said.

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But now, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization says Canadians should carefully weigh the risks of waiting for a Pfizer or Moderna vaccination versus accepting AstraZeneca or — assuming it’s released for use — Johnson and Johnson.

Evaluating the risk, according to NACI, might depend on how much a person is exposed to others on a day-to-day basis. Someone working from home might wish to wait for Pfizer or Moderna, whereas someone else working within a large work force might want one of the others, it says.

There’s some logic to that, I suppose, except that, as someone tweeted, it seems to suggest “people who are most at risk should settle for a vaccine with the most risk because they are most at risk.”

All that had Prime Minister Trudeau and Health Canada scrambling yesterday to insist all the vaccines are safe. And Health Minister Patty Hajdu says anyone worried about which vaccine to get should ask their healthcare provider.

So now all the responsibility is to be offloaded onto family physicians and nurse practitioners?

We all know the pandemic is “unprecedented” as the politicians like to say, but this is the worst case of bungled messaging yet. And at a crucial time in the vaccination program, it’s bound to mess with the rollout, possibly even more than the supply issue.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.