Migrant workers, seafarers and inmates go to the back of the vaccine line. It’s not fair, but it is also not smart

 

The NPC Healthbiz Weekly is here to keep on informing you through 2021. Your weekly briefing on topics pertinent to healthcare marketers and executives is published in cooperation with Peak Pharma Solutions. 

⇒ Issue #198 (In numerology, 198 resonates with a relaxed acceptance of life as it is)
⇒ Worldwide Covid cases as of 06/18: 177,483,286*
⇒ Worldwide Covid fatalities as of 06/18: 3,843,421*
⇒ Confirmed Covid cases in Canada as of 06/18: 1,413,840*
⇒ Confirmed Covid fatalities in Canada as of 06/18: 26,004*
⇒ Number of vaccine doses administered to Canadians as of 06/18: 30,885,092*

June 18, 2021—It’s Friday, and welcome to a new edition of the Curve Flattener. Today, Editorial Director Allan Ryan brings you the latest news from Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula, where migrant farmworkers travel every year to perform most of the tender fruit harvesting labour. These workers, even though they enter the country through official documented channels have not been well-treated in many cases, with crowded bunkhouses leading to Covid-19 outbreaks in several areas of the province.

But now vaccines are finally starting to reach this group. In Windsor, Ont., over 5,000 temporary foreign workers were vaccinated with their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine from April 28th to May 6th, 2021) and at an outdoor pop-up clinic (May 20th and 21st, 2021), according to this report.

The Workplace Wellness for Agri-Food Workers Taskforce, a collaboration of 16 community partners, reports that over 130 farms scheduled vaccinations for their temporary foreign workers and agreed to coordinate transportation, provide educational materials and address vaccine confidence. Other partners in the vaccination program included the Migrant Worker Community Program, the Consulate of Mexico in Leamington, Ont., The Windsor-Essex Bilingual Legal Clinic, The Neighborhood Organization and the Temple la Buena Semilla.

Others who are just now starting to receive Covid vaccines include seafarers on the Great Lakes. This article says 50 members of the Seafarers International Union of Canada, out of a total membership of about 1,700, have been vaccinated in the past few weeks.

“It’s a start. It’s a slow start,” said Jim Given, president of the SIU. “It’s been a struggle, but at least we see something happening, which is more than what we had before.” At the end of April, the union threatened that it would not crew ships unless the mariners were vaccinated. The vaccinations have proceeded at various Canadian ports on the Great Lakes, subject to the conditions of the local health authority.

The story is not as promising in jails and detention centres in Ontario and Nova Scotia, where, despite housing an at-risk population, some jails didn't offer prisoners vaccines until May, months after the vaccine was offered to the general public.

According to this report, more than 6,700 prisoners across Canada have tested positive for Covid-19—a figure that is 10 times greater than reported by CBC News one year ago, after the first wave of the pandemic. The recent CBC analysis of cumulative cases reported between March 2020 and June 2021, disclosed an average of 268 out of every 1,000 prisoners in provincial jails tested positive for Covid-19. In federal prisons, it's around 126 infected for every 1,000.

"We are a year-and-a-half into this. At this stage, they easily could have put in place safety measures, like rapid testing and proper protective equipment," one Ontario prisoner told the CBC. "If anyone gets Covid-19, it's the sole result of [the province] not ensuring we're safe."

The NPC Podcast is back for another season. The National Pharmaceutical Congress organizers are proud to release our new weekly podcast series, hosted by Peter Brenders. Peter's guest this week is Ronnie Miller, boss of Roche Canada. Listen here now, or download the episode and play it at your convenience. The NPC Podcast is presented in cooperation with Impres Pharma.

COVID CHRONICLE 06/18/2021

• People who recover from mild Covid-19 are expected to produce antibodies for decades, according to this paper published in Nature. The researchers say that although viral variants could affect the ultimate degree of protection, antibodies produced by bone marrow plasma cells are long-lasting. The researchers note this finding also has implications for Covid-19 vaccines, suggesting they will also be long-lasting.
  
• Covid-19 infections in England have increased 50 per cent between May 3 and June 7, according to a study commissioned by the British government, says this report. The rise in infections is believed to be driven by younger and mostly unvaccinated people infected by the Delta coronavirus variant, first detected in India.
  
  “Prevalence is increasing exponentially, and it is being driven by younger ages,” said Stephen Riley, professor of infectious disease dynamics at Imperial and one of the study authors. “And it appears to be doubling every 11 days.”
  
  “Clearly, that is bad news… but the key thing to point out here is that we are in a very different part of the epidemic in the U.K., and it is very difficult to predict the duration of the exponential phase.”
  
  
• Cases of either myocarditis or pericarditis have topped 300 in young people following Covid-19 vaccinations. Said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky: "The case is rare. . . over 20 million adolescents and young adults [have been] vaccinated in the United States." She noted that the CDC has asked: "clinicians to be on the lookout for and report patients with symptoms of myocarditis or pericarditis following vaccination."
  
  According to this article, it is not clear if the vaccines cause the heart problem. The CDC has said, however, that the evidence that might establish a link is growing.

WHAT CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON TODAY

NATIONAL PHARMA CONGRESS SUMMER WEBINAR:

“Post-Covid Countdown” is the theme of the National Pharma Congress Summer Webinar, scheduled for Tuesday, June 22, 2021. The event follows the recent NPC Spring Webinar, attended by 400 registrants. Faculty for the Summer 2021 event include: Ronnie Miller (Roche Canada), Patrick Forsythe (Eisai Canada), and Brian Canestraro (Intercept Pharma). Your hosts are: Ben Parry (Pangaea Consultants) and Mitch Shannon (Chronicle Companies.) Be sure to watch the NPC HealthBiz Weekly for updates on the event.

WHAT WE’RE COOKING TONIGHT

Going to give this one a go tonight—Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas. Ingredients are all on hand; I’m hungry and motivated. What’s not to like?

WE’RE BACK NEXT THURSDAY

Publisher Mitch Shannon will be back at the keyboard when Curve Flattener returns for two final instalments. In the meantime, you can read our other newsletters, Skin Spectrum Weekly and NPC Healthbiz Weekly, and you can follow us on Instagram. Please go ahead and subscribe through the links above. There's no charge.