Maimonides residents to get 2nd dose

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Beverly Spanier called it a miracle when she was among the first Quebecers to receive the vaccine against COVID-19 on Dec. 14.

But she’s not so happy about getting the second jab on Tuesday, when residents of the Donald Berman Maimonides Geriatric Centre in Côte St-Luc will again be among the first in the province to receive the final dose.

“This is almost three months after the first shot,” said Spanier, 75, a retired teacher at Wagar High School who contracted COVID-19 a few days after receiving the first dose.

She worries that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine won’t be as effective because the second dose has been delayed past the 21 days recommended by the manufacturer.

“I’ve had COVID, so probably I have greater protection,” said Spanier, who is paraplegic. But she’s concerned that other vulnerable residents of the long-term care centre could still be at risk because of the delay.

Joyce Shanks, a member of the family advocacy group at Maimonides, complained that residents have not been tested to determine whether the protective effect of the first dose has lasted. “This is a guessing game,” she said.

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In January, constitutional lawyer Julius Grey sent Quebec Premier François Legault and Health Minister Christian Dubé a legal letter on behalf of families at Maimonides calling on the government to follow the 21-day recommendation.

While residents at Maimonides are unhappy about the three-month delay, most Quebecers will wait even longer. Last Wednesday, the province announced it was changing its dosing schedule from three to four months in order to vaccinate as many people as possible before highly contagious variants of the virus become dominant.

The decision came after Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization said second doses could be given up to four months after the first. Quebec had initially been criticized for lengthening the wait to three months, but the other provinces have now followed its example and delayed the second dose.

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Prolonging the wait by a month will allow Quebec to vaccinate another 250,000 people in the 60-65 age group, Dubé said last week.

Clinical trials have showed the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to be more than 94 per cent effective when the first dose was followed by a booster 21 or 28 days later.

The Centers for Disease Control advise following the recommended schedule for the second dose. If a delay is unavoidable, it may be given up to six weeks later, but there is little data on the vaccine’s efficacy beyond that window, they say.

However, many public health experts say immunizing as many people as possible to prevent a third wave outweighs the goal of achieving maximum immunity in individuals.

Last week, Pfizer Canada refused to sign off on Quebec’s plan to wait four months for the second dose. The recommended schedule should be followed to achieve vaccine efficacy of 95 per cent, the company said.

mscott@postmedia.com

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