A public health timeline to prepare for COVID-19 vaccines in Canada

Abstract

For control of COVID-19, community immunity is required, necessitating widespread immunization. COVID-19 vaccines are coming to Canada, with the government announcing in August 2020 agreements with four different companies for their COVID-19 vaccine if their trials are successful. Never before has public health had to rapidly develop a vaccine introduction program for multiple new but differing vaccines with the added pressure that the program is needed across all ages and in all Canadian communities and there is high probability of not enough vaccine to go around at the start. Traditional public health vaccine introduction planning will need to be both accelerated and more comprehensive to ensure optimal uptake across the country. This overview highlights a number of points for consideration by public health in their planning for COVID-19 vaccines before these COVID-19 vaccines are available, once they are available, once supplies are plentiful, and throughout the vaccine program. Targeted and tailored communications are key elements needed to reach and positively influence diverse communities, regions, ages, languages, education levels and lived experiences.

Barriers and Facilitators to Receiving the COVID-19 Vaccination and Development of Theoretically-Informed Implementation Strategies for the Public: Qualitative Study in Hong Kong

“…Firstly, providing reliable COVID-19 vaccine-related information in a clear, transparent, and timely manner can foster public trust in the COVID-19 vaccines [ 35 ]. Experiences in Israel, Canada, and the US indicated that transparent monitoring and reporting of adverse events of COVID-19 vaccines were critical in strengthening public confidence toward COVID-19 vaccinations [ 38 , 39 , 40 ]. Existing studies have highlighted the need for governments to inform the public about both the benefits and harms of receiving COVID-19 vaccinations using data from vaccine trials [ 33 , 35 , 41 , 42 ].…”

“…In addition, healthcare professionals have to provide person-centered recommendations on COVID-19 vaccinations. They should keep their COVID-19 vaccine knowledge up-to-date by obtaining regular information released from the local government [ 39 , 48 ]. However, healthcare professionals may be overloaded with constantly evolving information [ 48 ].…”

Priority setting during the COVID-19 pandemic: going beyond vaccines

“…Vaccine roll-out, however welcome, is an additional strain not only in LICs but also increasingly in high-income countries. 21 22 There is a need to support health systems to sustain routine services—this is more critical for weaker health systems seeking to prevent excessive avoidable mortality. 20 Lastly, as countries plan to roll out COVID-19 vaccination, it is important that effective strategies to deal with vaccine hesitancy are developed and implemented.…”

Features of developing SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein population-based seroprevalence during the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic in the Russian Federation

“…Среди большей части населения пока еще происходит естественное формирование невосприимчивости к вирусу в результате заболевания COVID-19, обусловленного пандемическим распространением SARS-CoV-2. Одновременно в ряде стран нарастает масштаб внедрения специфических вакцин, а в ряде случаев начинается массовая вакцинация населения [35,38,40].…”