I got Vaxxed, again.
Muse #151 - where do we go from here?
Canada has made good progress on the vaccination front with the province of Ontario where I live reaching nearly 80% first-dose vaccine coverage this month. In spite of supply challenges, Canada has got here at the cost of delaying the second dose to its population. But now that a higher level of the population has been covered with the first dose, the second dosage is slowly creeping up.
My in-laws being in a higher age bracket where the first to get it was given the Pfizer vaccine in early April and managed to get their second shot last week in about 12 weeks (preponed from 16 weeks pre-scheduled date).
My wife and I got our Moderna shots mid-May and with the current ample supply of the Moderna vaccine, I got my second shot in 5 weeks and my wife should get it by the end of this week which makes it less than 6 weeks.
My daughters got their first Pfizer dose at the end of May. However, with supplies dwindling the Government of Canada has decided to offer Pfizer only to the 12-17 age group in order to conserve supply. And now my daughters get their second shot with the Moderna vaccine end of the week (with a 4-week gap between two doses).
Which vaccine is most effective? Pfizer or Moderna. What happens when the doses are mixed? What gap between doses are the most effective? 4, 5, 6, or 12 weeks? What happens when we are actually exposed to the virus? When do we get to herd immunity, here in Canada? What happens when we get to travel especially internationally to countries where vaccine coverage has not caught up and might be thriving with virulent variants?
Now we know not answers to many a question. All we know is that there is some expected protection from this. It might take a few years to have at least some studies that might throw light on some answers to some of these questions and other new ones that might come along with the way. And time might eventually tell us how much this helped.
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