Doctors recommend getting the updated COVID-19 shot

Public health officials say the number of COVID-19 infections are going up again right before respiratory virus season in the fall and winter.

This is also when respiratory syncytial virus and influenza also come on the scene.

Health Canada recently authorized an updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, manufactured by Moderna. The updated vaccine targets the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant circulating now.

The federal government is sending the new vaccine out to the provinces and territories, which are in charge of rolling it out to the public.

“I think the timing is going to be good,” said Dr. Jeffrey Pernica, head of the division of infectious disease at McMaster University in Hamilton.

“The incidence of COVID-19 has started to creep back up.”

However, the Public Health Agency of Canada says only 22 per cent of people five years and older got the bivalent booster dose, which offered protection against the Omicron variant in addition to the original coronavirus strain.

Moderna’s Spikevax mRNA COVID-19 vaccine is updated to target the XBB.1.5 subvariant of Omicron, is approved for people aged six months and older.

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Health Canada is also reviewing updated versions of two more COVID-19 vaccines.

One is Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comirnaty vaccine, which was designed to target XBB.1.5 and was approved by the FDA in America earlier this month.

The other is a non-mRNA option. Novavax has updated its protein subunit vaccine to target XBB.1.5 as well. The company is still waiting for FDA approval in America.

The updated vaccines specifically target the coronavirus subvariants that are circulating right now.

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan says the new subvariants are different from the old ones.

The last boosters targeted both the original strain of coronavirus and BA.1 or BA.5, which are subvariants of the Omicron variant.

But the XBB subvariants, which are the main strains appearing in Canada right now, are derivatives of Omicron BA.2 — and that subvariant wasn’t targeted by the prior bivalent booster, Rasmussen said.

So even if you got the bivalent booster, it’s still worth getting the new shot targeted to XBB.1.5, Rasmussen says.

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She also says the vaccine provides “additional protection against developing severe disease.”

Dr. Lawrence Loh, executive director of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, says variants have changed so it’s best to be up to date.

Experts say many people may have some hybrid immunity or dual protection from a combination of vaccination and infection to COVID-19. However, they maintain that immunity decreases over time.

This means that if it’s been six months or longer since you were last infected or boosted, then getting the updated vaccine is a good move to bring your protection back up this fall and winter, they say.

In addition, Rasmussen says the immunity-boosting effect of infection varies from person to person.

“If you got infected in the last year, you probably did get infected with one of the XBB subvariants. For some people that will act like a shot, but for other people it might not. And you don’t know which one you’re going to be,” she says.

In addition to the COVID-19 vaccine, flu shots will be available across the country this fall.

Like the updated COVID shot, the flu vaccine is formulated to be the best possible match for the strains of the virus that are expected to be circulating.

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Even though some people may still get the flu if they’re vaccinated, it still protects against severe illness, doctors say.

Public Health Agency of Canada says it’s safe to get both the COVID-19 booster and the flu shot at the same time.

Health-care professionals are hoping to avoid the “tripledemic” that overwhelmed hospitals and doctor’s offices last fall.

The exact timing varies between the provinces and territories, but both the flu shot and the updated COVID-19 vaccine are expected to be available in most of the country sometime in October.

Some provinces and territories, including Ontario, Saskatchewan and Northwest Territories, are first vaccinating high-risk populations, including seniors living in long-term care and retirement homes, before making the COVID and flu shots available to the general public.

Doctors and scientists agree that it’s especially critical that vulnerable populations like these are prioritized for vaccination.