'It's never going to be 100 per cent': Bioethicist questions vaccine strategy as COVID-19 pandemic enters another year

While governments are still trying to urge residents to get a COVID-19 vaccine, bioethicist and Dalhousie research professor, Françoise Baylis, says in reality, not everyone will get a shot.

She wonders if there are other strategies to take, as we enter the third year of the pandemic, with more waves and variants likely on the horizon.

“In an ideal world, you’d like that to be 100 per cent. But I think in the real world, it’s never going to be 100 per cent,” she said in an interview with CTV Atlantic. “And so, in that case, it becomes a legitimate question to know when we have maxed out? When have we reached a point where we’re not going to be able to get people to voluntarily come forward?”

In New Brunswick, about 92 per cent have received their first dose, while about 84 per cent have received two doses and 42 per cent now have a booster.

“We contact people and we say, ‘You are due for a booster, can you come in? Can we schedule you?’ And not everyone is getting boosted. So, we have to work on that,” said pharmacist Greg MacFarlane.

MacFarlane has spent a lot of time individually speaking with patients, carefully walking them through their concerns about the vaccine.  

Earlier this week, the Department of Health said it is aggressively promoting vaccines, specifically the first dose for children aged five to 11, and the booster shot.

New Brunswick Premier Blane Higgs has said further vaccine mandates are still possible, but some don’t agree that’s the right move.

“When you start introducing mandates and use a form of coercion that this government has used in the past, what happens is you create further division in society,” said People’s Alliance Leader Kris Austin. “You don’t move the dial a whole lot in terms of uptick of vaccination status and really, what you do is you inflame the public.”

Baylis wonders if there’s another strategy, like providing N95 masks to those who are unvaccinated, but also  helping people in other countries get access to the vaccine.

“I think the important thing to appreciate here is that, in gifting the vaccine to others, we’re not only helping those who received the vaccine, we’re helping ourselves because we’re bringing us closer to ending the pandemic,” she said.

Baylis believes there’s a moral obligation to help others, but that it’s also a strategy that could work in strengthening the immunity of more people around the world.