The head of Ontario’s Science Advisory Table is warning that vaccine protection is waning. The warning comes with ongoing concerns about the surging number of cases of COVID-19, driven by the Omicron variant.
Dr. Peter Juni said vaccine coverage is decreasing rapidly. The protection against "infection" has fallen from 90% a month ago to less than 15%.
“Vaccine protection against infection is melting like snow under the snow. And this is entirely a function of Omicron," Juni said. "In reality, there’s no way if it comes to infections to distinguish anymore between a person is not vaccinate and a person who has two doses."
Juni said that’s not the point, however, and that a third dose of the vaccine is still very important and effective.
“This would correspond to roughly 80% protection," he said, "and it means that you will have considerably better protection against hospital admission and ICU admission again."
Juni said most of the patients being seen in hospitals now are those who have experienced an infection from the Delta variant. He said new data should be coming in within days about the impact of the holidays.
Juni appealed to people to change their behavior: wear masks, reduce contacts, avoid crowds and not rely only on rapid tests to believe you are out of the woods.
Ontario recorded more than 9,400 cases on Monday and Juni said that number is likely to climb through the week.