Want to be fully vaccinated by Christmas? Your time is running out

For the Moderna vaccine, a person must wait at least 28 days after their first dose before they’re eligible for their second dose. The waiting period is 21 days for a person given the Pfizer vaccine, making Nov. 19 the last day to receive a first dose and have enough time for a second and the recommended two weeks afterward to have protection against COVID-19.

Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines are available to all adults in Ontario, while Pfizer is the only approved vaccine for children aged 12 to 17.

In October, Pfizer officially requested Health Canada’s approval for use of the vaccine in children aged five to 11.

Dr. Andrew Boozary, the executive director of social medicine and population health at the University Health Network, says more accessible information about vaccine safety and effectiveness needs to be readily available to help people veer away from misinformation.

With lower income communities and populations, such as pregnant women, still behind the provincial average in vaccinations, Burlington, Ont. family physician Dr. Jennifer Kwan says “leaders in cultural and faith communities that have lower vaccination rates need to prepare themselves with resources and tools to convince their members to get vaccinated.

“In order for people to safely enjoy and lower the risk [of transmission] to those who are unable to get the vaccine, getting vaccinated is important,” said Kwan. “The vaccine is one of the many layers of protection against the virus.”

“We have to continue to be clear about the comparative effectiveness of vaccine,” said Boozary. “There have been side effects but the data shows it is a safe vaccine to take.”

Boozary points to other parts of the country that have seen a recent rise in cases due to rushed reopenings and more people frequenting indoor settings because the weather is getting colder, saying it is important for people to get vaccinated to stop a repeat of last year’s holiday season.

“People who are not vaccinated right now represent a continuum of people,” said Dr. Naheed Dosani, the health equity lead at Kensington Health. “Some people are not vaccinated because they’re busy working jobs and don’t have access to child care.”

As the Pfizer vaccine is likely to be approved soon for use in children aged five to 11 and cases continue to climb in schools, a robust plan to vaccinate children is needed, Boozary says.

All three doctors emphasized the fact that people are still facing social and socioeconomic barriers when it comes to their vaccine hesitation and more work needs to be done on a governmental level to alleviate that.

Correction — Nov. 12, 2021: This article was updated to correct the waiting period between doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.