WINNIPEG -- The wait for a second dose for any COVID-19 vaccine in Manitoba is approximately four months.
If that first dose was of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the second-dose outlook is slightly murkier.
It’s only been one day since Manitoba and all other provinces in Canada announced changes to who is eligible for AstraZeneca.
In Manitoba, the shot is only being given to people aged 55-64. The province hit pause for people younger than 55 because the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) wants more information on a rare, but serious blood clotting side-effect called Vaccine-Induced Prothrombotic Immune Thrombocytopenia or VIPIT.
Dr. Joss Reimer said Monday that 14,000 of the 18,000 AstraZeneca doses the province received were already given out.
One of them went to 42-year-old Michael Rosenby last Monday.
He said he was eligible to get the vaccine because of his job where he works with people with disabilities outside his home. He said the pharmacist who administered it told him he may feel a bit sick afterward, so he was ready to deal with those side effects.
“I ran a bad fever throughout the night, chills, stuff like that, but by morning it was fine and then I was good,” Rosenby told CTV News.
After hearing about the AstraZeneca eligibility changes a week later, he went back to the pharmacy to ask the pharmacist on staff about his second dose but didn’t get a clear answer.
“She said you might have to wait for Pfizer or Moderna, so I would have to start the process all over again.”
Rosenby said he feels frustrated because he’s halfway through the vaccination process, and he does not fully understand the rationale for the change.
“We’ve done 300,000 doses in Canada, nobody has gotten sick, no side effects for the blood clotting.”
He said he would love to get a second dose of AstraZeneca if he could.
“For the people who’ve already had it, I don’t see why we should be able to get the second one if we want it,” he said.
“I really hope that the government makes it clear for everybody to understand, and if they decide if they’re not going to let the first dose people have a second dose (of AstraZeneca) under 55, then they should say why.”
On Monday, Reimer addressed the second dose issue for all vaccines, by saying the province is focused on getting the first dose into all adult Manitobans before moving onto second doses.
“That buys us a little bit of time to learn more about AstraZeneca before having to make that decision about dose two for people who received dose one,” she said.
On Tuesday, a government spokesperson told CTV News there are no further updates to the AstraZeneca eligibility announcement.
“We are currently not booking new second dose appointments. This also applies to AstraZeneca,” the written statement reads. “We have not decided what will happen for the second dose of AstraZeneca.”
"We plan to carefully watch the evolving science on this to help inform our decision as we get closer to starting dose two. Manitoba closely follows the recommendations of NACI."
On Monday, Reimer said that if people received the AstraZeneca vaccine between four and 20 days ago, and have any symptoms that look like a stroke or a heart attack – like a severe headache that doesn't go away, seizures, difficulty moving, severe chest pain, or shortness of breath – she strongly encourages them to seek immediate medical attention and tell health-care professionals that you received the AstraZeneca vaccine recently.
