People at high risk for COVID complications advised to get fall boosters
Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative reporter
Editor@qctonline.com
Public health officials in Quebec are advising people who are particularly at risk for complications from COVID-19 to get an additional booster shot this fall.
Quebecers 60 and older; those living or working in seniors’ residences or other shared living environments; those who are pregnant, immunocompromised, on dialysis or living with chronic health conditions; health-care workers and people living in remote or isolated areas are advised to get a new booster shot. It is advisable to wait until the fall, when boosters better adapted to currently circulating variants will be available, instead of getting a shot right now, public health officials recommend.
Dr. Nicolas Brousseau is a public health physician at the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ), the province’s public health research institute. “This is not the first year that we’re recommending a booster shot [specifically] for vulnerable groups,” he explained. “We’re still experiencing large numbers of hospitalizations and deaths, but they are overwhelmingly concentrated among people in high-risk groups – people 60 and older and with chronic health conditions – so it’s important to reach those people.”
He added that people who are not considered at high risk but who want to get an additional booster shot as a precaution can feel free to do so. “There’s no danger [in getting an additional shot] and the shots are efficient. You are at lower risk of complications [if you’re not in a high-risk group] but the vaccine is safe and it can help prevent complications.” He said vaccines may help prevent long COVID, which is more likely from a first infection than from a repeat infection.
Brousseau said the variant of the virus that is currently most common in Quebec, KP.3, is “particularly contagious” but not necessarily more dangerous than its predecessors. “The virus is changing and mutating and getting around our defenses … and we’re always playing catch-up a little,” he added, noting that current vaccines don’t necessarily prevent infection but can prevent complications.
Brousseau said it was likely the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) would roll out a joint vaccination campaign for COVID and seasonal flu this fall, with dates yet to be set. The MSSS referred a separate request for comment to the INSPQ.
As of July 24, 883 people in Quebec were hospitalized with COVID-19. During the week of July 14, the most recent for which statistics were available as of this writing, 26 people in Quebec died of the disease.