Health Committee on Feb. 19th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Ms. Rempel Garner.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

We will go now to Mr. Kelloway for five minutes.

Go ahead, please.

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

I want to thank the witnesses for being here today and for their testimony.

I'll be splitting my time with MP Tony Van Bynen as well.

I have a couple of questions. The first is for anyone in PHAC. Will there be an immunization registry to monitor vaccine coverage among Canadians? What's being worked on?

[Kimberly Elmslie]

There are already immunization registries that are used across the country in every jurisdiction, including one that is now being developed in Nunavut with support from the Public Health Agency of Canada. Those are electronic databases that capture information on immunization on a per-individual basis. They are used for clinical management of people who have been immunized. They are also used for surveillance purposes.

What we do at the national level is draw from the data in those registries, working with each province and territory to assemble that data into our estimates of vaccination coverage across the country, as well as using them to monitor for vaccination safety and follow-up. We do not have one national registry, but the collection of registries is administered according to a standard approach that provinces and territories agree to. In that way we can be confident in the data that we are gathering from those registries and using it to inform our programs at the national level.

What's important is that we look for trends and unusual happenings in the population with regard to immunization and then we take action on those with manufacturers, with our regulatory colleagues, and with provinces and territories as we move forward to ensure the integrity of the overall immunization system in our country.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

I'm sorry, Mr. Kelloway, for interrupting you.

I just want to note that Dr. Quach-Thanh has to leave at four o'clock.

I thank her for her appearance today, for making time for us and for waiting given all of the delays.

Mr. Kelloway, please go ahead.

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am sharing my time with MP Tony Van Bynen, so if it's okay with you, I will let Mr. Van Bynen go ahead and ask some questions as well.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who is participating in this dialogue. It's great for us to get the benefit of scientific insights on this complex issue, so that we have the benefit of facts as opposed to opinions to help inform the Parliament.

We've heard a lot about rapid testing. I'd like to confirm how many rapid tests have been deployed. I've also heard that rapid testing will stop or prevent the spread of variants.

First, how many do we have? How many have been deployed? How many are being used, and how does rapid testing stop the spread of these variants?

That question is for whoever has the information available.

[Dr. Guillaume Poliquin]

With respect to the precise number, a daily report is provided, and we can provide the precise state of play to you by remit after the meeting today, with the latest figures.

With respect to the impact of rapid antigen testing on variants, there is not a direct connection between the two. The use of testing in general, through rapid antigen testing or alternative testing methodologies, allows us to detect cases of SARS-CoV-2 in the Canadian population. From there stems public health action to establish isolation and contact tracing of those individuals.

If and when a particular individual is found to have a variant of concern, that can be further reported, but it cannot be done directly by the rapid antigen test. The rapid antigen test, and all tests, are there to detect cases and interrupt the transmission chain.

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

That is a component of the projections we talked about earlier.

My understanding is that over 22.6 million rapid tests have been deployed as of yesterday, for the record.

There has been growing concern about the COVID-19 variants of concern in York Region, which is where my riding is located. My understanding is that we've invested $53 million to address these variants of concern in an integrated strategy.

Can you tell me more about this strategy and how the Government of Canada is working with the provinces and territories to target these variants?

[Dr. Guillaume Poliquin]

The investment of $53 million represents a multipronged approach to the response to variants of concern, including establishing a robust mechanism to detect rapidly and further characterize variants of concern.

This represents a partnership of the National Microbiology Laboratory and PHAC, along with the Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network and CanCOGeN, the Canadian COVID-19 Genomics Network. It brings together all that information with CIHR to enable us to understand the spread, identify cases and understand the potential impact of these variants.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you.

We go now to Monsieur Thériault.

Mr. Thériault, you have two and a half minutes.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

It's unfortunate that Dr. Quach-Thanh had to leave the meeting, but I fully understand why.

Dr. Poliquin, you mentioned earlier that you were not only monitoring the efficacy of the Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, but also those of the other candidates for variants. Is that correct?

[Dr. Guillaume Poliquin]

That's correct.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

You're already conducting such trials with vaccines from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax. Why does it take so long to get vaccines approved and on the market? If you're conducting these trials, it's because they are relevant.

[Dr. Guillaume Poliquin]

The integrated strategy allows us to characterize variants in our microbiology laboratories and better understand the potential effects of a vaccine on variants. These observations must be added to data from clinical trial to better understand the potential effects.

It would be best to ask Health Canada representatives the question about the approval process.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Okay, I'll ask Health Canada representatives.

Now I'd like to talk about vaccination. Variants are a threat, and no one knows if it'll be possible to detect them adequately. There are probably many more than can be detected currently.

Do you think the pace of the vaccination program is acceptable?

[Dr. Guillaume Poliquin]

We're working to improve our ability to detect variants and the speed of their characterization. The relationship between our ability to detect variants and the impact on the pace of the vaccination program is a somewhat more complex issue. We continue to closely monitor the evolution of variants and their incidence here in Canada.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Is it still appropriate to use two vaccines for immunization? This question arose because of a lack of vaccine, but how can we now put it aside? Do you have any evidence on the appropriateness of vaccinating with vaccines from two different manufacturers?

[Dr. Guillaume Poliquin]

I'd let Dr. Quach-Thanh answer that question, but she left the meeting, unfortunately. Perhaps Ms. Elmslie could answer it.

[Kimberly Elmslie]

I see the chair is showing a red sign.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

If you wish to answer Mr. Thériault quickly I would appreciate it, and then we'll move on to Mr. Davies.

[Kimberly Elmslie]

As Dr. Quach said earlier, research is under way now to look at the impact of interchangeability of vaccines and at the durability of the effect of immunization. They are becoming available very quickly. As you said, NACI will be looking at more data from the U.K. next week, and so we and the world are gathering and assessing information on dose schedule on a real-time basis so we can be equipped to make those kinds of recommendations.

NACI has the breadth of expertise, which is why we rely on them as external experts to look at those data and give us their advice on dose interval, on the efficacy of one dose versus two and on the durability issues that continue to be really important from a scientific perspective.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Ms. Elmslie.

Thank you, Mr. Thériault.

We'll go now to Mr. Davies for two and a half minutes.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you.

A recent lab study suggested that the South African variant may reduce protective antibodies elicited by the Pfizer vaccine by two-thirds.

Moderna just published a correspondence in the New England Journal of Medicine with data that showed a sixfold drop in antibody levels versus the South African variant.

Is there any anticipation that this reduction in protective antibodies will render the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines ineffective against the B.1.351 variant?