BC’s Top Doc Says She Views COVID Shot as ‘Seasonal Vaccine’ Rather Than Booster

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry speaks in the press theatre at the legislature in Victoria, B.C., on March 10, 2022. Chad Hipolito/The Canadian Press

B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says the COVID-19 vaccine should be looked at as a seasonal vaccine rather than as a booster.

Dr. Henry has made the comments a number of times in the last few weeks, most recently telling the Victoria Times Colonist that the province is preparing for a fall vaccine campaign, while waiting for the latest version of COVID vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna under review by Health Canada.

“I’m really thinking of this as an updated seasonal vaccine, as opposed to a booster, because the protection that we have from the previous vaccines that we’ve received still provides good strong cell-mediated immunity,” Dr. Henry said on Aug. 3.

Dr. Henry said she is planning the province’s vaccine campaign, focused on the so-called Omicron variant, to begin in late September or early October, assuming it is approved by Health Canada. This follows a recommendation July 11 from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization that suggests people should get a vaccine in the fall if they haven’t had one in the last six months, or if they haven’t had COVID in the last six months.

According to Dr. Henry, the COVID vaccine has been “updated” the way the influenza vaccine is tailored each year to a specific, anticipated strain of the flu. This year’s formula is to focus on one Omicron strain.

In the fall of 2022, the formulation on the market was said to be a bivalent vaccine which had the Omicron strain and the original Wuhan strain.

‘Stable’

Dr. Henry suggested that the new version of the vaccine has been safely given millions of times and uses “well-proven” technology.

“Omicron has stayed relatively stable for almost a year and a half now, so we’ll see what happens through this next respiratory season,” she said. “It may be that this updated vaccine will last longer than a year — those things we are still learning as we go.”

She said infections of COVID are down and there are few people in the hospital.

“The bivalent vaccines we had last fall had an Omicron strain in them, but this one is updated to what we’re seeing circulate around the globe, but here in Canada and B.C. as well over the last few months,” Dr. Henry told Global News on July 12.

“Similar to what we do with influenza, we look at what are the likely strains to be circulating and causing illness in the upcoming season, so that’s why I think it’s really important to get this updated vaccine, and it builds on the immunity that you’ve had from previous vaccinations.”

She said a fall surge of a virus outbreak is “likely” and said like other cold and flu viruses, COVID could remain “seasonal because that’s the pattern we see with all these other respiratory viruses.”

“We expect we’re going to see an increase. It’s hard to know when,” she said.

In March, B.C. rescinded it’s mandatory policy requiring government workers to be vaccinated, in favour of a campaign focused on the elderly and vulnerable. At the time, Dr. Henry said the province was targeting those at “highest risk” of severe illness—elderly people over the age of 80, indigenous people over the age of 70, and long-term care patients—with boosters.

Dr. Henry said she expects that by the fall, she will recommend that everyone get COVID boosters.

On April 3, the province dropped the rule that B.C. Public Service staff would be required to provide proof of vaccination, noting that 98 percent of employees had already met the requirement. Proof of vaccination is still required for health-care workers or in a workplace under provincial health officer orders.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.