Health Committee on Feb. 19th, 2021

[Cindy Evans]

For clarity, Mr. Chair, and just to bring forward the rationale in support of this—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

How about this? Could you table with committee the data on adherence to quarantine for the last year?

Does that data exist?

[Cindy Evans]

Mr. Chair, we'd be happy to take that question back to the department and bring forward information that's available with respect to adherence to quarantine measures.

Thank you.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Was that data used in informing the decision to make people quarantine at a quarantine hotel, which I note in the main estimates is going to cost a quarter of a billion dollars? So what data was used to inform that decision?

A quarter of a billion dollars. What data was used?

Anyone? It's just a quarter of a billion dollars. What's that between friends?

Anyone? Any data? No?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Ms. Rempel Garner.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

We go now to Mr. Van Bynen.

Mr. Van Bynen, please go ahead for five minutes.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

On October 23, 2020, the federal government announced funding to a biopharmaceutical company, Medicago, based in the city of Quebec for a vaccine manufacturing facility in that city. The federal government has also recently announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Novavax to pursue options to produce its COVID-19 vaccine at the National Research Council of Canada's Biologics Manufacturing Centre, once both the vaccine candidate and the facility have received the required Health Canada approvals. It was reported on February 14, 2021, that the federal government would meet soon with provincial governments to discuss collaboration on building up domestic biomanufacturing capacity.

To whoever is appropriate, in your opinion how much will these initiatives contribute to Canada's vaccine supply and how long will it take to establish?

[Dr. Roman Szumski]

If I could take that, Mr. Chair, the initiatives that are being described are led out of the industry portfolio. They would be best positioned to answer those types of questions.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Okay.

To your knowledge, would there be any private sector options to produce the COVID-19 vaccines domestically that the federal government could have pursued earlier? And if so, what were those options?

[Dr. Roman Szumski]

Medicago is a private company.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Oh, it is. Okay. Thank you.

Can you describe Canada's past and present pharmaceutical and bioproduction landscape? What should we be doing to make ourselves more self-sustainable as we go forward?

[Dr. Roman Szumski]

Mr. Chair, again, the biomanufacturing strategy that Canada is pursuing is led by the industry portfolio.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Then let's go to the vaccine effectiveness.

Please explain the concept of herd immunity and what portion of Canadians is needed to establish herd immunity. I know that's a complex question but we hear the term so often. Could you please explain the intent and the impact of that?

[Kimberly Elmslie]

Herd immunity, as you mentioned, is a concept that we hear about a lot. Some areas of science will put percentages around it, saying we need to reach a certain level of immunization in the population to achieve herd immunity. Others will talk about it in terms of time frame.

From a public health perspective, we in the field are cautious when it comes to pronouncing on a particular percentage of the population required to achieve herd immunity, which is essentially a place where the virus can no longer efficiently transmit because people are protected; either they have been protected through vaccine-induced immunity or through natural infection and they are now immune. When the virus has nowhere to go, it can't continue to transmit and you have achieved herd immunity.

That protects people who are unable to be vaccinated because, for example, they may have contraindications to a vaccine and therefore not be able to receive it. Allergies may prevent them from receiving it. When you reach that place where the virus has no efficient way to transmit between people, then essentially you've reached herd immunity. You see drops in the level of disease in the population and, of course, in transmission.

We are monitoring all those indicators at the Public Health Agency. We're looking at vaccine effectiveness, what kinds of transmission rates are being seen within subgroups of the population, the reproduction factor, all of them. As you said, it's complex but at the same time, the concept is a pretty simple one. We will be looking at those indicators as vaccine rollout continues and public health measures continue to be implemented to see the spread of the virus decrease.

Thank you.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you.

How much time do I have, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Effectively none. Thank you, Mr. Van Bynen.

We now go back to the Conservatives. Ms. Rempel Garner, is it you again?

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Barlow.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Mr. Barlow, please go ahead for five minutes.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

This may be for somebody from PHAC. What percentage of Canadians have to be vaccinated before we no longer have lockdowns, and travel and quarantine restrictions are lifted?

[Dr. Guillaume Poliquin]

Mr. Chair, I'll answer, and Ms. Elmslie may have additional comments.

The necessary level of protection is a dynamic question as we continue to learn more about the effect of variants of concern on long-term efficacy of the vaccine. We also need to understand the duration of immunity in the population, as well as the effect on transmission. It is a complex number that is potentially going to change over time as the state of the science evolves.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

I hope the representatives from PHAC here today understand how devastating these lockdowns are to Canadians, not only for businesses but for Canadians' financial and mental health, which is being profoundly impacted. The concern we're hearing, just from today, is no data is being provided to warrant these lockdowns.

Why isn't this information available so I can tell my constituents the reason they're being asked to lockdown further is because of A, B and C?

[Dr. Guillaume Poliquin]

Mr. Chair, on the issue of the changes in the outbreak dynamics and the impact of public health measures, as has been mentioned previously, modelling was released today that shows a number of different scenarios, including the maintenance of current public health measures and the acceleration—

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Mr. Poliquin, I'm sorry. I hate to interrupt, but maybe I can put it this way. When will you know? Can you put a timeline on when you'll have the data sufficient to understand how many Canadians would need to be vaccinated before we have what would be acceptable herd immunity and would no longer have reasons for lockdown? When would you have that data available?

[Dr. Guillaume Poliquin]

Mr. Chair, that is a question that is a moving point as we learn more about the interplay of this virus. We continue to learn more on a daily basis about transmission dynamics, and now we have the additional layer of complexity introduced by variants of concern, which have different properties and different impacts on transmission. These are live questions that continue to be updated and explored as we learn more.