Exclusion from clinical trials, lack of data and inconsistent information made it difficult for pregnant and breastfeeding people to make decisions about COVID-19 vaccines early in the rollout.
Vaccine hesitancy in parents shouldn’t mean adolescents can’t get vaccinated.
Hundreds of residents of Toronto’s M3N postal code, a hotspot for COVID-19 infections, line up at a pop-up vaccine clinic on In April 2021.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston
Hotspot neighbourhoods with greater COVID-19 risk exposure continued to have higher infection rates even when they achieved vaccination levels equal to lower-risk neighbourhoods.
Vaccine resistance movements have always been led by white, middle-class voices and promoted by structures of racial inequality.
The first Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine dose in Canada sits ready for use at The Michener Institute in Toronto in mid-December 2020, less than a year from when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
If Big Pharma wants to achieve the ultimate image makeover, it must capitalize on the current public good will about its COVID-19 vaccines by prioritizing socially responsible practices.
If you’re in Sydney, the advice is for people to bring forward the timing of their second AstraZeneca shot, and for the under 60s to consider having it if they can’t get hold of Pfizer.
Associate health minister Ayesha Verrall receives the Pfizer vaccine.
Lynn Grieveson - Newsroom/Newsroom via Getty Images
The latest survey shows COVID-19 vaccine acceptance is at 81%, but it suggests low reach for the government’s vaccination ads, with only four in ten people saying they’ve seen them on television.
Weeks do matter when it comes to the Delta strain. With Australia still heavily reliant on the AstraZeneca vaccine, for now it makes sense to reduce the time between the first and second jab.
The rise of the Delta variant does seem to be associated with more COVID transmission in schools than what we’ve seen previously. But kids are much less likely to become severely unwell.
With many vaccine-eligible people in the U.S. staying away, some vaccine sites have no lines.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
People who haven’t gotten vaccinated for COVID-19 often have complex reasons for their relunctance or may face other barriers. Lumping them all together undercuts the vaccination campaign.
We should move rapidly to reduce fear, improve vaccination rates, improve treatments and reduce complications as we do with other diseases we can’t eliminate or fully protect against.
Families and youth aged 12 and older lined up for a COVID-19 vaccine at Gordon A Brown Middle School in Toronto in May.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
With youth ages 12 and over eligible for COVID-19 vaccination — and as trials for younger children move ahead — parental hesitancy is emerging as the new challenge for COVID-19 vaccine programs.
People in Canterbury have been told to be patient as their vaccination is delayed by weeks, but regional disparities in the vaccine rollout are unacceptable as we face new COVID-19 variants.
Paediatrician at the Royal Childrens Hospital and Associate Professor and Clinician Scientist, University of Melbourne and MCRI, Murdoch Children's Research Institute