Mr. Chair, thank you for asking me to be here today. I'll take the question first.
I would say that Canadians should be very comforted in knowing that we have a very rigorous system in Canada for ensuring that the vaccines that they will get in their arms are safe as well as effective. Health Canada, as the regulator, does very rigorous assessments of vaccine safety, and they've been linking with European and other international regulators to get the information we need.
We acted fast when we saw that there was a signal from Europe. With that, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization also took an initial assessment and a precautionary approach in putting a pause on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in persons under the age of 55.
Right now, Health Canada, having asked the company, AstraZeneca, for more information, has done its assessment and analysis and concluded that the benefit outweighs any risk of this rare but serious adverse event overall. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization is doing its due diligence in analyzing this information right now. What the committee has to do is not just analyze the risk of this rare side effect but also the balance in terms of the benefits of prevention of COVID-19 in different age groups. The committee is doing this work very diligently right now and will come out with a new reassessment soon, as Dr. Tunis indicated.
Again, Canadians should be very heartened by the fact that our vaccine safety system and how we assess vaccine safety is extremely rigorous.