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Area Pharmacist Recommends Getting the AstraZaneca Vaccine

am800-news-tim-brady-pharmacy-march-4-2021
am800-news-tim-brady-pharmacy-march-4-2021
Essex County Pharmacist Tim Brady told The Morning Drive that you should go and book an appointment for a shot, if you can

An Essex County pharmacy owner expects the phones to be busy Monday now that the province is dropping the minimum age for people to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

Ontario will start offering the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to those aged 40 and over starting on Tuesday at pharmacies and primary care settings.

Pharmacist Tim Brady owns Brady's Pharmacy in Belle River and Essex and told AM800's The Morning Drive that you should go and book an appointment for a shot, if you can.

He says the one problem they face is a sporadic supply.

"We get several hundred, then there's a little bit of a delay, then we get more. But now that we know it's 40, we'll be working on a supply so that everyone gets a shot that needs it," he says.

Brady says they have shots and they want to get them into arms.

"It's a great vaccine. It's turning out the effectiveness is even higher than we originally expected on the original studies, so that's the good news," he says. "We now know the actual potential risk for the clotting, it's around one in 250,000, so that's a good number to actually be able to tell people. So we'll actually be getting them in arms."

There's always a rush when they make a change, according to Brady.

"They're not allowing us to do walk-ins which they didn't do originally. We tried to do appointments just because of the issue of spacing, we can't have too many people in the pharmacy at the same time," he added. "I know the pharmacists in the county will step up and do a good job and get them in everyone's arm that wants one."

Ontario and Alberta had previously stuck to the National Advisory Committee on Immunization's recommendation that the vaccine be used in those 55 and over due to a slightly elevated risk of an extremely rare blood clot disorder.

But the federal health minister said Sunday that Health Canada has licensed it for use in anyone over the age of 18 and provinces were free to make their own decisions about who can have the shot.

Patty Hajdu noted that NACI is currently reviewing its guidance, with an updated recommendation expected in the near future.

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