2024-04-19 BC – Pandemics in British Columbia

Levels are falling down pretty quickly! Yay for weather nice enough to open windows!

Vaccines

I have a friend who lives in BC but outside the core metro areas — not rural, but not The Big City. Because of some unusual medical conditions, Friend has really bad reactions to the mRNA vaccines. Friend thus tried to find a place in their city which would give them Novavax, and ran into multiple problems.

The first problem was that pharmacies thought Friend was not eligible because they are under 65. Friend had to READ OUT the Ministry of Health press release which announced the booster program over the phone. (NOTE: If you are under 65 and want a booster, you should probably PRINT OUT the press release and bring it with you to the appointment.)

The second problem was that 66% of the pharmacies weren’t giving any COVID-19 vaccinations.

The third problem was that those 33% of the pharmacies which were giving COVID-19 shots were only giving mRNAs.

Friend called the vax line (833/838-2323) to see where they could get an appointment, and the best the vax line could do was make an appointment in The Big City which was on the same day as a medical appointment Friend already had in The Big City, so Friend only had to do the Big Inconvenience once.

However, the medical appointment was slightly before my friend’s six-month vax-aversery came up, so the vax line cautioned that the pharmacist has full discretion to deny my friend a vax when they arrive.

Friend asked a Facebook group, and was tipped off that they should contact the local Public Health Unit. Neither of us had heard of Public Health Units before, but apparently PHUs provide a number of health services to communities, and there are tons of them. Here’s North Delta’s Local Health Unit, for example.

The local Public Health Unit did intervene and Friend is now scheduled for a Novavax shot next week at a pop-up clinic, but my friend was very frustrated with the process. “It is preposterous that BC’s only covid strategy is immunization and they make it this hard. At every step I’ve been told no! No one I’ve talked to during this process wants me to get a vaccine: I have been actively discouraged at every step. And yet whenever someone dies they’re like “should have stayed up to date on their vaccines.” (My emphasis.)

It could actually be worse: in the UK, you are absolutely not eligible unless you are over 75, live in a care home, or are immunosuppressed. In the US, it’s only for those over 65 or immunosuppressed (although this post and this thread maybe indicates that not all pharmacies are enforcing the limits).

Statistics

As of 18 April, the BC CDC situation report says that in the week ending on 13 April there were: +250 reported cases, +59 hospital admissions, +11 ICU admissions, and +8 thirty-day all-cause deaths*.

In the week ending 6 April, they now report that there were +342 reported cases, +90 hospital admissions, +13 ICU admissions, and +29 thirty-day all-cause deaths*.

For comparison, in the previous update (2024-04-11) they reported that in the week ending on 6 April there were: +337 reported cases, +78 hospital admissions, +13 ICU admissions, and +15 thirty-day all-cause deaths*.

*All-cause deaths in people who had a positive COVID-19 test in the prior 30 days, that is.

There were 112 people in hospital and 6 in critical care with COVID-19 on 18 April.