Evidence of meeting #38 for Health in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was doses.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
We already haven't been provided with the contracts from the vaccine contracts, and now it looks like we're not even getting a contract from somebody like a courier, basically, Switch Health, a company that's trying to pick these things up. It's mainly in the rural areas that the problem is.
Why is that so important? Why are we hiding a Switch Health contract? Is it a transportation issue?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I think, Mr. Chair, it's more a matter that we, as the department responsible for procurements, take the contracts very seriously and don't just release contract information without a discussion with the supplier. Industry watches how we handle ourselves in these circumstances, because there are certain types of information that are confidential—
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
I take it from what you're saying that we can't see the contract.
Dr. Tam, this morning we were informed that close to 5,000 specimens were unable to be tested.
If the PCR test is left outside over six hours, in either the heat or the cold, while waiting to be picked up by Purolator, will that impact the veracity of these test results?
President, Public Health Agency of Canada
Mr. Chair and honourable member, perhaps I could speak to that.
We have not been having—
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
Hello.
Mr. Chair, I think the specimens are likely to still be reasonable to test.
If this is a PCR test, it would detect the viral genetic material and it shouldn't impact the quality of the test.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
How many days can a PCR test wait before being sent to the lab for test results before it would be impacted? If someone, say, took a test today but doesn't get it to the lab for eight days, would that impact the veracity of those test results?
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
[Technical difficulty—Editor] more technical answer, but when it's just genetic material you can detect it.
It's like DNA being left around in an environment, or in different places, in different materials, which we should be able even if it were left....
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
That's how long some of these have been out, so I'm just raising that issue.
Mr. Stewart, when I originally mentioned the concerns about Switch Health, you didn't seem very surprised, which indicates that the government has known about these issues for some time.
Since the beginning of the contract, what specific changes has the government asked Switch Health to make—which you alluded to earlier—to ensure that the tests are being picked up on time?
President, Public Health Agency of Canada
We have been working with Switch Health to improve their delivery.
The key thing is for the people who are waiting for their eight-day test in particular—and I believe when you talk about rural delays, it's those eight-day tests when people are in quarantine.
One of the things that we did first of all was to provide more time. We made it an eight-day test, not a 10-day test, so it was less likely to impact the person waiting for the result. We've added, as I mentioned, more service providers gathering up samples in rural areas—as I mentioned, three new service providers, and then for other areas we have added Uber as well. We work with their company on their level of staffing—
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
There's no Uber in rural Canada, Mr. Stewart, and I just wanted to say that I've got complaints from constituents about that entire process of submitting the two PCR tests, and receiving—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Thank you, Mr. Maguire.
We'll go now to Dr. Powlowski for five minutes.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
Thank you.
My riding extends from Thunder Bay to the Manitoba border and includes all of the Canada-U.S. border in that region. It's a very large region and largely a very isolated region. Many families and businesses have close connections with families and businesses on the other side of the border.
A lot of people have been severely affected by the border closure. Grandparents haven't been able to see their grandkids. People haven't been able to see their children. People haven't been able to see their spouses. Also, particularly in northwestern Ontario, businesses that deal with tourism have been really devastated because they're almost totally dependent on the American market and American tourists. There is increasing evidence that being fully vaccinated significantly decreases the risk of transmission. The CDC in the United States is recommending a relaxation of social measures, and we've seen it. It seems to me that EU has announced that it will allow fully vaccinated Americans into the EU.
Given the severity of the effects of the border closure, I think it is reasonable for people to ask when we can expect some sort of decision as to the border being open. I would suggest that certainly the summer would seem to be a reasonable time, especially given the effects on the tourism industry where, if there are no American tourists this year, a lot of businesses are going to go bankrupt. A lot of people will lose their livelihood.
I know Ms. Rempel Garner asked about that and I think it's a reasonable question. When can we expect to hear when fully vaccinated people, especially Americans, will be allowed into Canada?
Dr. Tam?
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
Thank you for the question.
I think it's an extremely reasonable one. We are working very hard at looking at the options going forward. I hope all members know that the orders in council do get relooked at on a very frequent basis. I expect that we will be incorporating some of these policies in the upcoming ones.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
By “upcoming”, what sort of period of time are we looking at?
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
I do think that Canada is probably on a good trajectory in terms of its epidemiology and our own vaccination coverage. I do think that between now and moving toward the fall we would expect some shift in that policy.
I think one of the other aspects to remember is that we have to actually look at the proof of vaccinations. As I said, there are some operational considerations, standards and that type of thing that need to be worked out as well.
We do also expect to continue, I think, to do some testing, even in vaccinated individuals, given the potential for variants that may have escaped vaccines, for example. We would be taking all those factors into account.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you are a pediatric infectious disease specialist. In Ontario, the schools have been closed for, I don't know, six weeks—at least in Thunder Bay. We kind of started before the rest of Ontario.
I think you'll agree there's pretty good evidence that kids missing prolonged amounts of school potentially suffer long-term learning consequences. That's certainly a significant thing. We know that there haven't been a lot of cases of significant spread within the schools. However, there have been some.
What are your recommendations and what are PHAC's recommendations to the provinces regarding the timing and the importance of reopening schools?
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
I think schools are very important to children. It is a topic that all chief medical officers are seized with. This is of course in the jurisdiction of the provinces and depends on the epidemiology in the individual location. You might expect schools in Newfoundland to be open in different periods than those in Ontario, for example. It is very much a provincial jurisdiction and a lot of it depends on the epidemiology of what's going on outside that school, not necessarily focusing on transmission in schools.
I do think that now that vaccines are available, teachers getting vaccinated would also help those safe returns to schools.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Thank you, Dr. Powlowski.
Mr. Thériault, you now have the floor for two and a half minutes.
Bloc
Luc Thériault Bloc Montcalm, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Dr. Tam, we are currently hearing conflicting opinions about giving the second dose of the vaccine to people who have contracted the virus.
What is your opinion on this, and why?
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
Mr. Chair, I hope I understood the question correctly.
If someone has already had COVID-19, currently the National Advisory Committee on Immunization's recommendation is still that they be provided with the full schedule of vaccines. However, I believe that NACI will be reviewing that information on an ongoing basis, because as the public is probably interested in, it is likely that the original infection provides some level of immunity.
We know that in a lot of the studies vaccines provide better immunity in terms of antibody responses than the actual natural infection, so giving a vaccine after someone has been infected is still the recommendation, but I look towards the committee to provide further information on the exact number of doses.
Bloc
Luc Thériault Bloc Montcalm, QC
Do you know of any evidence or studies that show how long it would take to adapt a vaccine to a variant? I'm thinking of the mRNA vaccine, for example.
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
It depends on the technology for the vaccine, but for the mRNA vaccine, one of the benefits is that it can be easily adjusted, and to different variants, should that be a need.
Just on that point, we know that a whole suite of vaccine manufacturers are already looking at different vaccines that are more adapted to some of the variants that have been picked up globally. That study is already taking place and we expect that to be quite fast.