Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw. (Government of Alberta)

By David Opinko

Dr. Hinshaw: “Overwhelming” evidence COVID vaccines safe and effective

Dec 16, 2020 | 4:12 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health is defending the short amount of time it took to develop and approve the first COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw says it is “incredible” to think that, within a year of the virus being discovered, there is already a vaccine that has been proven to be 95 per cent effective.

The first doses of Pfizer’s vaccine were administered in Alberta this week to healthcare workers in Calgary and Edmonton.

READ MORE: First COVID vaccine doses arrive in Alberta, additional 25K next week

Dr. Hinshaw understands that there is always worry about the effectiveness and safety of new vaccines, especially when they are done in a shorter amount of time, but states that Canadians should not be afraid.

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“It’s important to remember that Canada has one of the most robust regulatory systems for new vaccines in the world. Health Canada moved quickly through the approval processes, but no steps were skipped. The same rigorous testing and scrutiny was applied to this vaccine as any new treatment.”

“A clinical trial with tens of thousands of participants from multiple countries found no safety concerns.”

However, the Pfizer vaccine has yet to be approved for people under the age of 16 as there have not been sufficient clinical trials completed amongst this group.

Albertans can expect Moderna’s COVID vaccine shortly as well, but that has not been approved by Health Canada.

READ MORE: Canada to receive early shipment of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine before year’s end

In the weeks and months ahead, she says officials will be looking extremely closely for any adverse side effects of the shots and will be able to act quickly if any develop.

“I believe the benefits of vaccines far outweigh the risks and this vaccine will save lives. There is overwhelming scientific evidence that vaccination is the best defense against serious infections.”

The first doses of Alberta’s COVID vaccines have been reserved for healthcare workers including nurses, ICU, long-term care centres, and respiratory therapists.

In Phase 1, which will begin in the first quarter of 2021, Dr. Hinshaw says inoculations will go to long-term care residents and staff, healthcare workers serving high-risk populations, and people over the age of 75.

Phase 2, starting likely in April, will include first responders and front line professionals. She says it has yet to be determined exactly which groups will be part of the second phase.

Alberta Health Services also released Wednesday’s report on COVID-19, detailing the numbers that were confirmed in the past 24 hours.

1,270 cases were confirmed across the province, bringing the total to 84,597. Of those, 20,169 cases are active while 63,668 people have recovered.

Approximately 80 per cent of the new infections were in the Edmonton and Calgary Zones, who saw 562 and 452 positive tests respectively.

Meanwhile, in the South Zone, 46 people contracted the virus with 16 of those being in Lethbridge.

Since yesterday’s update, 16 Albertans have died from COVID with 10 in the Edmonton one, four in the Calgary Zone, and one each in the Central and North Zones.

To date, the virus has claimed the lives of 760 people in the province.

In the 2019-2020 flu season, AHS reported that 39 Albertans died from influenza in hospital. In just the first three days this week, there have been 42 deaths in the province due to COVID-19.

“It is a sobering statistic that, in less than 10 months, more Albertans have died from COVID-19 than have died from influenza in the last 10 years combined,” says Dr. Hinshaw.

Provincially, 749 patients are currently hospitalized and 139 have been admitted to intensive care.

With another 17,569 tests completed over the past day, there has now been a total of 2,562,225 tests done on 1,587,574 different people.

The regional breakdown for COVID-19 in Alberta is as follows:

• Edmonton zone – 36,165 cases, 9,715 active
  • 379 deaths (10 new)
  • 418 in hospital, 87 in ICU
• Calgary zone – 33,120 cases, 7,122 active
  • 244 deaths (four new)
  • 209 in hospital, 39 in ICU
• North zone – 5,639 cases, 1,245 active
  • 57 deaths (one new)
  • 34 in hospital, five in ICU
• Central zone – 4,813 cases, 1,458 active
  • 27 deaths (one new)
  • 68 in hospital, four in ICU
• South zone – 4,640 cases, 553 active
  • 52 deaths
  • 20 in hospital, four in ICU

The breakdown for the South Health Zone by community is as follows:

• Brooks – 1,325 cases (seven new), 38 active, 14 deaths
• Lethbridge – 1,292 cases (16 new), 204 active, seven deaths
  • West Lethbridge – 488 cases (four new), 65 active, two deaths
  • South Lethbridge – 398 cases (four new), 48 active, three deaths
  • North Lethbridge – 406 cases (eight new), 91 active, two deaths
• Lethbridge County – 398 cases (two new), 54 active, three deaths
• Medicine Hat – 392 cases (eight new), 85 active, five deaths
• M.D. of Taber – 293 cases (one new), 31 active, six deaths
• Cardston County – 232 cases (three new), 52 active, six deaths
• County of Warner – 141 cases (three new), 11 active, two deaths
• Cypress County – 135 cases, 12 active, zero deaths
• County of Newell – 135 cases, 17 active, two deaths
• County of Forty Mile – 113 cases (one new), one active, two deaths
• M.D. of Pincher Creek – 82 cases (one new), 36 active, two deaths
• Fort Macleod – 58 cases (three new), eight active, three deaths
• Crowsnest Pass – Ten cases, three active, zero deaths