Health committee  Absolutely.

Health committee  I hope so, but the rollouts are provincial jurisdiction, so I don't have any say on that matter.

Health committee  As I said, you're right. We have data up to two months on, including data for long-term care facility residents, in whom the vaccine effectiveness is above 80%. In that data, we don't see a decline of vaccine effectiveness over time, up to two months. What the modelling has shown us is that even if we were to include a 5% decline of vaccine effectiveness over time, the benefit in terms of a decrease in hospitalizations and mortality at the Canadian level would still be beneficial.

Health committee  Had we known that Public Health England was going to publish its real-world evidence the next day, showing such a high effectiveness in preventing hospitalization, we would have waited an extra day. It's easy when you look back in the—

Health committee  As I said, we have looked at that, and the recommendations will be updated, but you don't know what's coming in front of you. It's impossible, moving forward, so at one point in time you have to say, “These are the data we had.” We had said to the Public Health Agency of Canada that we would aim to get a recommendation out for AstraZeneca within days of Health Canada's approval, because of the fact that vaccines were going to be used in Canada, and therefore provinces and territories needed to know how to use them.

Health committee  I'm not sure I'm following your question.

Health committee  We had data on the 18 to 64, with a confidence interval that did not include zero, so I am not sure what you're referring to.

Health committee  The fact that Health Canada and our recommendations do not align is not conflicting views, to my sense. Health Canada is looking at data with a different paradigm. We are looking at the data knowing what else we have in our portfolio. Health Canada is not ranking one product versus the other; we are.

Health committee  Thank you for your question. Basically, NACI creates the recommendations for provinces and territories so that each province and territory can then take up the recommendations and apply them to its own epidemiology, jurisdiction, logistics concerns, etc. Once our recommendations are out, they are then taken up, mashed up and put into the Canadian immunization guide, which is used by health care providers.

Health committee  Yes, absolutely. We have to realize that Health Canada will authorize a vaccine or a medication, and it's not the first time the clinical guidelines will differ from what has been authorized. In this particular case, Health Canada deemed the vaccine was safe and efficacious enough to be used in all age groups, which is its decision.

Health committee  I can tell you that the Minister of Health hasn't raised anything with us. We realize, not being stupid, that having conflicting recommendations is going to be a problem. That's why we're aiming to have technical briefings or whatever to explain why there is divergence. The problem is that we are an independent committee.

Health committee  You are asking if I still stand by the statement we issued on March 1. As we said, we are reviewing the data. We met yesterday—

Health committee  As of now, yes, because we're reviewing it at this point in time.

Health committee  Absolutely. Thank you for that question. Efficacy means the vaccine impact in a randomized control trial where you actually choose the population—choosing in the sense that you have very strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. Usually your population is healthier than when you use it in the real world.

Health committee  In terms of efficacy, it is 60% efficacious for 18 to 64 and approximately 40% efficacious for the older population. However, when you look at effectiveness, it seems to have a 70% to 80% effectiveness in preventing hospitalizations and death, which is comparable to the other vaccines.