Health-care workers in Quebec want COVID-19 booster shots

Quebec healthcare workers want to knw why they are not allowed to get COVID-19 booster shots.

Quebec health-care workers want to know why they are not allowed to get COVID-19 booster shots.

For weeks, the province has been offering third doses to certain population groups, including those with weakened immune systems and people with two doses of the Janssen (Johnson and Johnson), AstraZeneca, or Covishield vaccines.

Those working on the front lines with COVID-19 patients, though, have not been included.

“It’s mysterious because it’s clearly recognized across the world that you need at least three doses to be able to maintain the current level of vaccine efficacy against current and emerging variants,” Dr. Don Vinh, infectious diseases specialist at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), told Global News.

Nathan Freedland, an emergency room nurse at the Lakeshore General Hospital in Pointe Claire, said medical staff never know what they’ll face.

“A few weeks ago I triaged a man who was coughing up blood,” he said.  “He had travelled and was a young man. He claimed he was vaccinated with only one dose.”

He said he suspected the patient may have had COVID-19.

“I listened to his chest with my stethoscope,” he said. “I don’t know what I could’ve picked up from this man.”