Questions raised about future of travel after AstraZeneca vaccine not accepted at U.S. concert
Canada’s vaccination rate for first doses ranks among the top of the world’s largest countries, and second doses are now accelerating as well.
“When you look at the pace of vaccination, we're up there with the fastest in the world, when it comes to administering vaccine,” said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease doctor based in Toronto.
But for those folks who got an AstraZeneca shot, there is new concern whether that will be enough to get them into events in the United States when the border reopens to travellers.
Rocker Bruce Springsteen is reopening his live production on Broadway later this month, and to attend you need to be fully vaccinated with vaccines approved by the FDA for use in the United States — including Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson — not Astrazeneca, which has yet to receive the green light for use in the U.S.
It might seem like a small thing, but as the world emerges from the pandemic and borders start reopening, the rock show could be the sign of things to come, according to Dr. Kelley Lee, a professor at Simon Fraser University and Canada Research Chair in Global Health Governance at SFU.
“Even if we relax and we can go in the States, you can’t assume that you're going to have the same access to things as say an American, so you really have to do your planning if you’re going to do a trip,” cautions Lee, noting there has been a patchwork of vaccination programs around the globe.
She said the same issue could apply here too for Canadians returning from abroad who are fully vaccinated but not with vaccines approved for use here by Health Canada.
“We’ve had quite an uncoordinated way of using travel measures, and now easing them, we're having the same problem,” said Lee Wednesday. “Even coming back to Canada, if they haven’t had vaccines that have been recognized in Canada, they're going to be not able to circumvent the hotel quarantine system.”
The good news, says Lee, is that the predicaments posed by the different vaccines will likely get sorted in time.
“I think everybody is on the same page, we just need to do it safely, and we want people to get together again,” she said. “It’s in everybody’s interest, it’s just going to take time.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment which has been banned at Queen’s Park.
Mountain guide dies after falling into a crevasse in Banff National Park
A man who fell into a crevasse while leading a backcountry ski group deep in the Canadian Rockies has died.
2 teens charged in Halifax homicide: police
Two teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder in connection to an alleged homicide near the Halifax Shopping Centre earlier this week.
'Deep ignorance': Calls for Manitoba trustee to resign sparked after comments about Indigenous people and reconciliation
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing calls to resign over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
12-year-old hippo in Japan raised as a male discovered to be a female
When Gen-chan arrived at a zoo in Japan in 2017, no one questioned whether the then-five-year-old hippopotamus was a boy. Seven years later, zoo staff made a surprising discovery: Gen-chan, now 12, was female.
Here's why Harvey Weinstein's New York rape conviction was tossed and what happens next
Here's what you need to know about why movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction was thrown out and what happens next.
Legendary hockey broadcaster Bob Cole dies at 90: CBC
Bob Cole, a welcome voice for Canadian hockey fans for a half-century, has died at the age of 90. Cole died Wednesday night in St. John's, N.L., surrounded by his family, his daughter, Megan Cole, told the CBC.
Humanist group threatening to sue Vancouver over council prayers
The B.C. Humanist Association has threatened legal action against the City of Vancouver for allowing prayers at council, following a similar warning issued earlier this month to a smaller community on Vancouver Island.
LHSC performs a Canadian first in robot-assisted direct lateral spine surgery
Spine surgery may never be the same for people with chronic back pain and other physical ailments.