Health committee  We know that once you're boosted, you get into the high nineties in terms of protection against severe disease. We know that, for the most part, it seems to last a number of months, but we don't have data for months and months and months. With regard to three months out, for th

Health committee  Currently, as you know, the manufacturers are including different variants in their vaccines. In the next few months, we may see different variants included. They're looking at the original strain, the wild-type strain, and potentially the omicron strain. That's the nearest strat

Health committee  That's a very good question. With regard to infection, the booster gives you around 60% protection against infection, but over time, so about three months later, it will have fallen. Exactly what it will be, we don't know; it may be 40% or it may be 30%. Most importantly, it'

Health committee  Thank you for the question. NACI does not make recommendations with regard to mandates. NACI gives expert advice with regard to the use of vaccines—which products and which populations—but mandates are a federal, provincial or territorial decision.

Health committee  That's right. NACI would provide information on how well vaccines work and what their recommendations are for vaccines, but they wouldn't provide information or advice on whether to mandate or not. That would be within the realm of the provincial, territorial and federal policy-m

Health committee  Thank you very much for the question. Definitely one of the challenges has been the paucity of data. At the beginning, we often don't have a lot of data. We have the clinical trials, but they are done in specific populations in relatively small numbers. We have to make our best

Health committee  Yes. Thank you for the question. If you've had omicron as your only infection, you mount a response against omicron, but it doesn't provide a very broad response against other types of variants—past ones for sure. We don't know what the future will look like. However, if you hav

Health committee  Thank you very much for the question. As you know, two new vaccines have been authorized recently. One is a protein subunit vaccine, which is the Novavax vaccine. The other is a virus-like particle vaccine, which is the Medicago vaccine. Medicago's is a new technology based on g

Health committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. At NACI, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, we monitor the authorized vaccines or the vaccines that we expect to be authorized and make recommendations with regard to those vaccines. We're currently looking at the current vaccines an

Health committee  NACI does recommend that people who have had infection should be vaccinated. They have recently come out with some suggestions with regard to the time period between infection and vaccination. They have said if you've had an infection and you haven't yet completed or started yo

Health committee  Thank you very much for the question. The National Advisory Committee looks at the effectiveness of vaccines. As we know, if you don't get infected with COVID-19 because of vaccination, then you are not at risk for post-COVID syndrome or long COVID. By being vaccinated, you ar

Health committee  I can just provide some of the facts that NACI has been looking at with regard to vaccine effectiveness. We do know that for two doses, the vaccine effectiveness against infection decreases over time and it can end up being quite low. With three doses, we do see protection agains

Health committee  The national advisory committee has made recommendations with regard to booster doses. It has strongly recommended that booster doses be offered for people 50 years of age and over and certain other high-risk groups, and has a discretionary recommendation for those 18 to 49 years

Health committee  NACI doesn't make recommendations with regard to mandates. That's provincial, territorial and federal jurisdiction. NACI provides recommendations with regard to what vaccines should be used and how they should be used for Canadians, but mandates are not within its scope.

Health committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I have no opening remarks, but I'm happy to take questions at the appropriate time. Thank you.