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Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 (nCoV-2019)

Sub_Human said:
People do have to show their Health card number at the pharmacies, and there does appear to be some kind of integration with a provincial system. You can request a print out before leaving the pharmacy, and/or have one emailed to you.

View attachment 313630
Also, quite a significant percentage of people get noticeable side effects such as chills for a day or two after getting the vaccine, so don't get alarmed if that happens to you. On the bright side, I think it might be a sign that it's actually working like it's supposed to.
www.medicalnewstoday.com

Oxford-AstraZeneca (Covishield) COVID-19 vaccine: Known side effects

In this Snapshot, we take a closer look at the potential side effects associated with the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, also known as Vaxzevria.
www.medicalnewstoday.com www.medicalnewstoday.com
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My husband got the same kind of print out at the Convention Centre mass vaccination site, and I did as well at St. Michael's Hospital when I got my Pfizer shot, so at least, the data seems to be collected centrally.
 
Richard White said:
Pressures is mounting on Justin Trudeau to declare a public welfare emergency in Ontario via the Emergencies Act.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1384137640539148301

https://twitter.com/x/status/1384144770453295109
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*Mumbles about if this was his dad was running the show, he would of likely declare a national emergency with this, hardcore like. And if Alberta, et al complains, they would of been met with his infamous "salute"...and watch his party likely go up in the polls nationally for doing so...*

...but we don't live in such days. As they let the big bad provinces call the shots...with varying degrees of results, with some more disastrous than others to put it mildly. /sigh
 
Pfizer's tweet

72B28021-3C25-46CB-B909-5EEF08E9FB23.jpeg


Why wasn’t Canada first? Where’s Trudeau and the feds?
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
To be fair, it is ludicrous to have so many competing registrations systems to start off with. The provincial government have a year to figure out the rollout of vaccines and this is what they come up with? A "system" (to put it charitably) of scattershot portals that may or may not work at any given time, with differing registration requirements that changes on the whim? Seriously who is responsible for this garbage?

AoD
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Indeed. My Health Card has a magnetic strip on the back. It should be simple to scan it to one registration system.
 
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Reactions: vic
Admiral Beez said:
Indeed. My Health Card has a magnetic strip on the back. It should be simple to scan it to one registration system.
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Your/our health cards ARE being scanned when we receive the vaccine - if for no other reason than to ensure someone does not keep getting more and more shots! When you book on the Provincial site you give your health card number which it appears to verify. Pharmacy registration sites appear NOT to require the card to book.
 
Admiral Beez said:
Indeed. My Health Card has a magnetic strip on the back. It should be simple to scan it to one registration system.
Click to expand...
It’s all fine and dandy once you receive the vaccine. That goes into a central registry linked with your health card. It’s getting to the point of getting your vaccine that is problematic.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
To be fair, it is ludicrous to have so many competing registrations systems to start off with. The provincial government have a year to figure out the rollout of vaccines and this is what they come up with? A "system" (to put it charitably) of scattershot portals that may or may not work at any given time, with differing registration requirements that changes on the whim? Seriously who is responsible for this garbage?

AoD
Click to expand...

Remember back in November, 2020, that Ontario had problems with the flu vaccines after they made "efficiencies" with the distribution?

Dated November 25, 2020...

What's going on with flu shots in Ontario​


From link.

The head of the OPA says there's still flu vaccine out there — don't give up on getting a shot this season

If there’s one message from health officials people took to heart over the autumn it was the urgent plea to get a flu shot this year. Experts sounded the alarm over a potential “twindemic” — a double whammy of COVID-19 and flu cases overwhelming the healthcare system.

Since early October, Ontario has seen a spike in the number of people looking to get a flu shot at their local pharmacy. That surge, however, has created a few logistical issues, with some suggesting there was a shortage of the vaccine in the early fall and Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott refuting the possibility, frustration among people hoping to get the vaccine, and even a bit of finger-wagging from Premier Doug Ford who accused the Rexall pharmacy chain of double-booking appointments for flu shots.
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Justin Bates: I think it’s all about how you define a shortage. We won’t really know how demand has met or exceeded supply until after the season is fully over.

Has there been a shortage? Let’s call it a challenge with supply with pharmacies. Pharmacies typically get about 27 to 30 per cent of the overall provincial supply (1.6 million of 5.5 million doses thus far). But when looking at community distribution specifically, the pharmacy allocation is approximately 40 per cent of community distribution between public health unit and primary care physicians. There is a set allotment that goes into hospitals and long-term care that, if taken out of the mix, increases the allocation from a community perspective.

What we’re seeing, year-over-year, since pharmacies launched [the flu vaccine] program in 2013, is that demand patterns are changing. More and more people are choosing to go to a pharmacy because of accessibility, convenience and just the sheer volume of pharmacies that are participating — over 3,200 across the province.

This year, we saw a 500 per cent increase in demand for the flu vaccine in pharmacies compared to this time last year. So when we only get 27 to 30 per cent of the allocation, but we’re getting many more people coming into the stores wanting flu vaccination, it speaks to the overall distribution allocation.

It’s a complex scenario because government — through public health — looked at [the supply of flu vaccine] back in January and February. They’ll be planning for the next flu season in another couple of months. They also look at the previous order history, as well as what the flu season is like in the southern hemisphere. Then they place their orders, usually in early spring. When they did this last year, the data available to them suggested a 16 per cent increase in orders was reasonable. That was a responsible number at that time.
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This year, we saw a 500 per cent increase in demand for the flu vaccine in pharmacies compared to this time last year
But the reality is, once the flu season started on Oct. 5, those numbers were thrown out and we saw a lot of people rush to get their flu shots. That’s atypical. Most of the time, there’s a first wave, and then a second wave — the demand is more spread out. This year though, there was a greater awareness and understanding of the value and importance of getting a flu shot, probably because of the pandemic, and that helped drive demand. We saw more people getting their flu shots particularly in October, so there were shortages simply because we’re not used to having that many people come so early in the season.


It sounds like the inability to get a flu shot is a combination of a pandemic that has highlighted the need for vaccination and how Canada determines how much it needs.

There has been a lot of talk about avoiding a “twindemic” and overwhelming the hospital system. I think that people took that message seriously. The government was promoting very early on that if you want a flu shot, you can get a flu shot.

But let’s put that into perspective: 5.1 million doses were ordered, which was a 16 per cent increase over last year’s order of 4.4 million. Last year, when they ordered the 4.4 million, there was about 300,000 shots that were wasted doses, which means there were only four million people who got a flu shot in 2019.

That said, this year, the order was increased from 5.1 million — I think they’re now at 5.5 million — because they’ve been able to procure extra doses from the federal government. They are also looking at international markets and importing in flu vaccine. It’s incredible. That’s about a third of the population if you look at Ontario’s population of roughly 14-million plus. We’ve never seen a vaccination rate like that. It’s historic.

The question for next year is, ‘Is this an anomaly? Was this largely driven because of the pandemic? And will that interest wane if the pandemic goes away?’ We don’t know those answers.

From a pharmacy perspective, we’re asking for a greater percentage allocation of the overall provincial supply so we can meet demand. It’s been a really challenging flu season because even from what was expected to come, and I think we’ve had about 1.6 million [doses] in total thus far distributed to pharmacies, it didn’t go where they thought it would. So, while pharmacists utilized an appointment-based model to avoid a surge of people walking in to pharmacies. But that meant they had to cancel appointments because they didn’t have supply.

There is still vaccine available in some pharmacies and there’s certainly still vaccine available through some primary care physician offices as well as the public health units.


Where do things stand now? Can we expect to have access to flu shots in December?


I think the government is looking at all kinds of options to procure more vaccine. Since some people got the flu shot early, it should mean that we won’t see as much of a demand spike that we typically see in December and January. There’s usually a second wave of people that tend to get flu shots when the bad weather hits. But if those people have already been vaccinated, maybe we won’t have that second wave.


We don’t know if and when we’re going to get more vaccine. Most pharmacies are not booking appointments until they have it on hand to avoid the disruption of cancellations.


I‘m wondering about vaccine hesitancy. Are you concerned that these cancelled appointments might turn people off the idea of even bothering to get a flu shot?

That’s a great point. As people hear about shortages, they may think it’s going to be this way all the time. And if they had a bad experience, it gives people a lack of confidence. They might not even try their primary care physician or public health unit.


Should Canadians still be trying?

Everyone should continue to call ahead, be patient and check with their primary care physician. The public health units are still booking appointments, so there is supply out there. It’s just going to take some perseverance.
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Now the good news...

Flu cases hit record lows during pandemic: researcher​

From link.

The bad news, the distribution of "any" vaccine is still not perfect.
 
PinkLucy said:
As I mentioned upthread, I've heard of a number of people sitting on wait lists who end up just going to the pharmacy and getting a shot same day. The online systems seem to be the problem (Shoppers told a number of people that their booking system wasn't working for days)
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It might have taken a few days at the beginning for them to get everything working. I suppose it could be possible they have vials with a certain number of doses and they get near the end of the day with no more appointments booked and might ask some small number of people showing up if they want to get vaccinated to finish off the vial, but I think the main problem with using only the pharmacies for delivering the AstraZeneca vaccine is probably that their limited capacity doesn't allow them to take as many customers as should be getting it.
They need to start also using it at other types of locations if the pharmacies are not capable of using all the available doses before they expire.
 
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