Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't mean to repeat the information, but I can only share with you that the evidence fully supported the decision to implement the mandates. With respect to the timing, as I said, the evidence is constantly evolving. New studies are coming out. Dr. Poliquin was talking a moment ago about a study a few days ago on long COVID.

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is part of the challenge we are facing. We do not have exact figures, but I will check with Dr. Poliquin for further information. In any case, I know it is difficult to estimate the number of such cases.

Health committee  Would you like to answer, Dr. Poliquin?

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Of course, I can't speak specifically to advice provided to the government and to ministers as part of the cabinet process, but I can say, as I've stated before, that the science and the assessment of the Public Health Agency supported the decision to lift the vaccine mandate.

Health committee  As I said, we are constantly reviewing the studies and the evidence, and the information that was provided to the government is consistent with what we were seeing at the time when the mandates were being lifted. The advice that was provided was constantly evolving—

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Maybe I'll take those in that order. We at the agency are working to monitor and build an evidence base to inform public health decision-making with respect to post-COVID or long COVID. We are working closely with a number of partners to make sure that we build that evidence base, starting with Statistics Canada.

Health committee  It was, as I indicated, to ensure that Canadians had the protection during this latest wave of COVID. We know that the effectiveness was demonstrated through studies to still be present, even during the omicron wave. Yes, it wanes over time—probably more quickly than with delta—but it still prevents transmission.

Health committee  I would assure Canadians that this is based on the data and the engagement with experts. As I said earlier, we are constantly engaging with experts on the world stage and nationally. We're engaging with provinces and territories—

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question. I will ask Dr. Poliquin to respond to that.

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Certainly we want to be as clear as we can with Canadians. Dr. Tam always makes sure, during her briefings, that she communicates to Canadians what the situation is in Canada, as well as do other departments that have imposed measures, whether it's Transport Canada for a domestic vaccine for federally regulated sectors, or the Treasury Board for the public service.

Health committee  We were facing a very strong resurgence. The science was still emerging with respect to omicron. Although it happens very quickly in pandemic time, it still takes a while for the pandemic science to emerge on the effectiveness of vaccines against certain variants and to understand how a particular variant is presenting.

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With respect to vaccine mandates, the national and also global epidemiological situation was very different from what we have today. Modelling showed the possibility of strong resurgence. We were in between alpha and delta variants. While we did have a high vaccination rate even back then, there were pockets and subpopulations that were not vaccinated, including younger individuals.

Health committee  It was certainly to encourage vaccination, but at the time we were also looking to protect Canadians from COVID-19, severe illness and hospitalization. There was very strong evidence to show that the vaccines were very effective for all of those risks that we were facing at the time.

Health committee  The objective of all of the measures that are in place is really to protect Canadians and the health of Canadians, and, in particular, people who are vulnerable and immunocompromised. That is the first objective in all of these measures in addition to promoting vaccines, because we had very good evidence that vaccines were very effective, particularly against alpha and delta, and because we knew that there were some regions of the country and some populations where we didn't have the protection that we were looking for and that was necessary.

Health committee  The Public Health Agency of Canada regularly provides evidenced-based advice. You asked me whether the data had changed. The data have certainly changed since the vaccine mandate was introduced in the fall of last year. The situation has changed since. That's the type of information we generally provide to the government when we deliver advice.