Health Committee on May 2nd, 2022

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

You seem to be saying that it is indeed considered a significant problem to have denied a large number of patients of care because of the mobilization of health care professionals to treat COVID‑19 cases. Do you think, then, that increasing financial resources, particularly for provincial health systems, would be a way to solve this public health problem?

[Dr. Theresa Tam]

The key to addressing COVID is to take all of the measures we just talked about, including vaccinations and protection of health care workers in terms of different layers of measures. If we don't address COVID-19, the health system will not be able to get back to addressing backlogs of surgeries, etc. That is a very specific approach that needs to be undertaken so that the health care system can catch up on some of these backlogs.

As for the health transfers or the actual health human resources, I'm afraid that I'm not in the best position to be commenting on those. We could be reaching back to Health Canada and the minister for some of the plans going forward.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mr. Garon.

Thank you, Dr. Tam.

The last MP to pose questions in this meeting will be Mr. Davies.

Go ahead, please, for the next two and a half minutes.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you. I feel obligated to state for the record that there is no coalition government in Canada. There is a confidence and supply agreement between New Democrats and Liberals. That's just for anybody interested in accuracy.

Dr. Tam, I'm interested in your views on infection-acquired immunity. The immunologists I've spoken to and the data I've reviewed seem to show that there is at least some evidence that the durability and strength of infection-acquired immunity can rival, if not exceed in some cases, the immunization from vaccination particularly from mRNA vaccines.

I'd like to hear your views on that and maybe ask why Canadian health policy doesn't recognize in any way the impact of infection-acquired immunity.

[Dr. Theresa Tam]

I think we're just learning about immunity both from infections and from vaccines. It also depends on the variant that you're talking about.

I think there's certainly evidence that for variants prior to omicron, if you had an infection, you could have quite significant immunity. That has to be monitored in terms of how long that immunity lasts for and the quality of that immune response, but when omicron arrived, it was a game-changer.

There are many things about omicron that were a bit different. It can cause a milder illness and maybe infect only your respiratory tract before your body gets to work fighting it, and that immunity to omicron variants might be quite variable, so we're still learning about that.

What is important is that we have to understand what we call “hybrid immunity” as well. Some of the studies—and they're quite sparse at the moment—show that if you're unvaccinated and you get infected, you're more likely to get reinfected with omicron. If you are vaccinated and you're infected, you're less likely to. Your body generates more neutralizing antibodies, perhaps, but those questions remain.

I think it is not a simple question. It may be dependent on the variant as well.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Do I have time, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Very briefly, yes, go ahead.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Last Tuesday, Moderna announced that a COVID-19 booster it's designing to target the beta variant generated a better immune response against a number of virus variants, including omicron. Does the federal government plan to procure any doses of Moderna's bivalent vaccine targeting the beta variant?

[Dr. Theresa Tam]

I'll start, and then Stephen Bent, who's in charge of procurement, can supplement.

I think it's very important to get the clinical trials looked at in terms of the Moderna bivalent vaccines. We're looking forward to the data—we hope over the next month—on the bivalent ancestral strain, plus an omicron strain, but the proof of concept with a beta variant strain is promising. I know that, with our contractual arrangements, we have made provisions to purchase new formulations.

I don't know if Stephen has anything else to add.

[Stephen Bent]

No, I would just echo Dr. Tam's comment that our current agreements with Moderna allow us to access new formulations when they're approved by the regulator.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thanks to both of you.

That concludes our questions.

To all of our witnesses here today, thanks for your patience with the late start and the late finish. We can only imagine how busy you are, so your indulgence is greatly appreciated, and your service to Canadians is also greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for being with us.

Colleagues, before we wrap, on Wednesday we're going to be continuing to hear from witnesses on the COVID study, but not all parties have provided us with witnesses, so if they don't do that fairly promptly, their spots will be taken up by those who have. From the suggestion of the analysts, it will be a split meeting, with an hour for witnesses and an hour to plan committee business and what we're going to be doing going forward.

I think that's it. We're good for Wednesday. That will apply to the meetings after Wednesday. The message is to get your witnesses in, please.

Is it the will of the committee to adjourn?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

We're adjourned.