Health committee  The reference was to adverse events reported to Health Canada in the last two years. We received over 1,000 reports of adverse reactions that were potentially linked to natural health products.

Health committee  Thank you. Chair, to first clarify the comment I made in the interview, when we were talking about misinformation and disinformation, it was specifically in the context of some of the initiatives that were insinuating that Health Canada was specifically anti-NHP. We've heard at times that we were going to ban parsley or go into people's gardens and pull out cilantro.

Health committee  As I noted before, that review is ongoing. Certainly we have completed the review of the science and now it is in the final stages. The length of time that takes is dependent on a number of factors: the questions we pose to the company; how long they take to get back to the evaluators with those responses.

Health committee  In general, herd immunity is the number of people who need to have immunity to protect people who are within the herd who do not have immunity. Whether you get it through having had the disease or being vaccinated, it's that protective sort of effect. Herd immunity for a virus can be anywhere from 50% to 90% of people who need to be vaccinated.

Health committee  I'll start. You're absolutely right. There's research coming out of Israel that has been interpreted as potentially being information that would talk to transmissibility. The research in Israel was really around viral shedding. What they found was that there was a decrease in viral load in those people, so they would shed less virus, and then the conclusion was that potentially they would be less transmissible.

Health committee  The review of the AstraZeneca submission is ongoing. We have gone through the bulk of the scientific information. This submission was a bit more complicated than the ones we've seen with Pfizer and BioNTech because of the way the data was collected. We also note that different regulators are taking different approaches to how the AstraZeneca vaccine should be used.

Health committee  So far, the data we've seen for both Pfizer and Moderna have shown that their vaccines are quite effective against the 1.1.7 variant, which is the U.K. variant. In laboratory studies, both of those mRNA vaccines have shown some decreased activity against the 501 variant, which is the South Africa variant.

Health committee  Absolutely. Of all of the vaccine platforms, the thought is the mRNA technology would be the quickest to redesign in terms of changing the vaccine to respond to variants. The viral vector vaccines can also be changed quite rapidly, but you're right that the mRNA vaccines would likely be the ones that would be the quickest to change.

Health committee  Certainly, from the regulatory standpoint, we've done expedited reviews to make sure that, whether it's a point-of-care test, an immunology test or a lab-based test, those are reviewed and authorized if they meet the Health Canada standards. The Government of Canada, as you noted, has gone through a lot of procurement of rapid tests and has deployed those on the basis of need in the provinces and territories.

Health committee  The two vaccines that are authorized so far in Canada, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, are both two-dose vaccines. The reason that they're two-dose vaccines is really based on all of the developmental tests that have gone into the development of those vaccines, from animal studies and through lab studies to the clinical trials.

Health committee  Mr. Chair, there's a review process that involves review teams with a lot of experience. Each review team has about seven to 10 people on it, in a variety of different scientific domains. They look at the preclinical, or the lab and animal data, they look at the clinical trial information, and they have detailed examination of the manufacturing data in separate groups and in areas of expertise, and then all of that comes back together to see if that vaccine will meet the appropriate standards for safety, efficacy and quality, as well as whether the benefits of that vaccine outweigh the potential risk.

Health committee  Since the start of the pandemic, Health Canada has worked closely with other departments and the Vaccine Task Force to develop and implement Canada's vaccine strategy. Early on, we recognized the need to facilitate clinical trials of drugs for COVID-19, given that no treatments or vaccines were available for this new virus.

Health committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, and thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee today. I appreciate this opportunity to highlight how Health Canada has been using agile regulatory processes to expedite the access to COVID-19 vaccines while maintaining high standards for safety, efficacy and quality.