✉️ Send letters to the health minister and MPPs to support earlier access to publicly funded Nuvaxovid, both this year and in future years. Use our online tool to send emails.
Comments closedIn 2026-2027, three COVID-19 vaccines will be available in Canada: the Moderna Spikevax, Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty, and Sanofi Nuvaxovid vaccines. In most provinces/territories, all three vaccines will be available via publicly funded programs. Limited quantities of the free doses of the Nuvaxovid vaccine will be available. Only vaccines that Health Canada has approved for use will be administered.
The Nuvaxovid (formerly Novavax) COVID-19 vaccine will be available in the Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Nunavut has not announced details for its vaccination program yet.
Learn more about the availability of COVID-19 vaccines in Canada
Comments closedKIRKLAND, QC, Sept. 17, 2026 /CNW/ — Pfizer Canada ULC and BioNTech SE today announced that Health Canada has authorized the XFG variant-adapted COMIRNATY® for active immunization of individuals aged 6 months and older against COVID-19. The updated COMIRNATY® vaccine targets the Omicron XFG lineage, in alignment with public health recommendations for the 2026-2027 season.
The Health Canada approval is based on the cumulative body of evidence previously submitted by Pfizer and BioNTech that includes clinical, non-clinical and real-world data supporting the safety and effectiveness of COMIRNATY®.
Comments closed✉️ Send letters to health ministers to voice your support for access to the Nuvaxovid COVID-19 vaccine in 2026/2027. Use our online tool to send emails.
Comments closedThe 2025-26 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is about 57% effective against emergency department/urgent care (ED/UC) visits and 54% effective against outpatient visits among adults roughly 4 weeks after vaccination, with considerable uncertainty, according to preliminary estimates published on the preprint server medRxiv.
A team that included researchers from the Providence Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System and Pfizer used a test-negative case-control design to estimate the early vaccine effectiveness (VE) of Pfizer’s BNT162b2 LP.8.1 vaccine against ED/UC and outpatient visits.
Participants were VA patients who had an acute respiratory infection (ARI) and underwent COVID-19 testing from September 10 to November 30, 2025.
Comments closedTORONTO – Health Canada has authorized updated COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer and BioNTech and by Moderna for use this respiratory virus season.
Moderna says it will manufacture vaccine doses for the Canadian market in its new facility in Laval, Quebec and syringes will be filled in Cambridge, Ontario.
News releases from both Pfizer and Moderna say the new mRNA shots will target the LP.8.1 variant, a descendant of Omicron that the World Health Organization was monitoring earlier this year.
Comments closedLP.8.1 variant adapted COVID-19 vaccine COMIRNATY is now authorized in Canada for individuals 6 months of age and older. It is expected to be available in Canada in the coming weeks.
KIRKLAND, QC, Aug. 18, 2025 /CNW/ – Pfizer Canada ULC and BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX) “BioNTech” announced today that Health Canada has authorized the LP.8.1 variant adapted COMIRNATY® COVID-19 vaccine for individuals aged 6 months and older. The updated COMIRNATY® vaccine targets the Omicron LP.8.1 variant, one of the most recently circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineages.
This season’s Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine will be available in pharmacies across the country in the fall. The public program operates according to the eligibility criteria determined by each province. If an individual meets these criteria, they will be eligible to receive the vaccine for free.
Comments closedThe 2024-25 COVID mRNA vaccines targeting JN.1 were highly effective in protecting against hospitalization and death for at least 4 months in a cohort of Danish citizens aged 65 and older by October 1, 2024. The new analysis estimating the vaccine efficacy (VE) of last season’s COVID vaccines was published earlier this week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
In total, 894,560 Danish residents were included in the study, with a median age of 76. By Jan 31, 2025, 820,229 (91.7%) of the participants had received a JN.1 vaccine. Among those without updated JN.1 vaccination (74,331), 278 COVID-19 hospitalizations and 84 deaths were observed during 25.6 million person-days.
Comments closedA study published earlier this week in Nature Communications using claims data from the US Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System finds protection from the 2024-25 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was 68%, 57%, and 56% against COVID-19–associated hospitalizations, emergency department and urgent care (ED/UC) visits, and outpatient visits, respectively.
However, the authors caution that uptake of the vaccine was extremely low—only 3.7% through November 2024—and the study did not assess waning effectiveness.
The study estimated early BNT162b2 KP.2 (2024-25 formulation) vaccine effectiveness (VE) against COVID-19 outcomes compared to not receiving the vaccine.
Comments closedHealth secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has expressed another unorthodox view on vaccines, with the long-time vaccine critic declaring that vaccines for respiratory bugs that target a sole part of the pathogen they are meant to protect against do not work.
The claim was dismissed as erroneous by vaccine experts, who were befuddled by the secretary’s theory, espoused during an interview with CBS News.
Kennedy made the claim in explaining a controversial recent decision by political appointees at the Food and Drug Administration to delay granting a full license to Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine, which is still given under an emergency use authorization or EUA.
Comments closedThe first time I got a Novavax Covid vaccine, it felt almost subversive.
Over the previous few years, every mRNA-based booster I’d gotten — the ones made by Moderna and Pfizer — had felt like a two-day bout of the flu. I’d gamely booked sick days into my calendar and sucked it up through fevers, headaches, and exhaustion, comforting myself with ibuprofen and the knowledge that at least I was keeping my elderly parents safe.
Two and a half years into the pandemic, the Food and Drug Administration approved a Covid vaccine made by biotech company Novavax using older vaccine production technology. Licensed for people 12 and over, it was nearly as effective at Covid prevention as Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines — and, as I noted with great interest, it had fewer side effects. In 2023, I got one.
Comments closedUpdated COVID-19 vaccines are starting to roll out to some high-risk Canadians, but others will have to wait a little while longer before these new shots are offered to them.
Last month, Health Canada approved Pfizer and Moderna’s latest COVID-19 vaccines targeting the most recent variants of the virus.
Both shots are approved for everyone aged six months and older.
The new mRNA vaccines from both pharmaceutical companies target the KP.2 subvariant of Omicron that was dominating COVID-19 spread earlier this year.
Comments closedThe federal government’s decision to not provide Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine this respiratory virus season raises health equity concerns, experts and advocates say, as some Canadians look to the U.S. to get the shot.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said it won’t provide the protein-based vaccine called Nuvaxovid because the manufacturer required a minimum order that far exceeds last year’s uptake of the vaccine.
The health agency said 125,000 Nuvaxovid doses were ordered in 2023, but only 5,529 were administered. This fall, it will only supply provinces and territories with the reformulated Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.
But some Canadians who say they are immunocompromised and have had adverse reactions to the mRNA vaccines are calling the decision unfair.
Comments closedTORONTO – The Public Health Agency of Canada says it is not providing Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine this respiratory virus season, citing low demand.
It says the manufacturer requires a minimum order of its updated protein-based vaccine, called Nuvaxovid, which far exceeds the uptake by Canadians last year.
The agency says a very small portion of the doses ordered in 2023 were used and that its decision reflects efforts to limit vaccine wastage.
It is distributing two mRNA vaccines — made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna — that are approved for adults and children six months and older.
Comments closedHealth Canada approved Pfizer-BioNTech’s updated COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, marking its third authorization of vaccine formulations that protect against the most recently circulating variants of the virus.
Pfizer-BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine, called Comirnaty, targets the KP.2 subvariant of Omicron, replacing the previous version that targeted the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant.
The approval of Comirnaty follows last week’s authorization of Moderna’s updated Spikevax mRNA vaccine and Novavax’s updated protein-based vaccine, Nuvaxovid.
Comments closedWith the approval of Moderna’s updated COVID-19 vaccine, doctors are hoping the shots will be available soon and Albertans will opt to roll up their sleeves to get one.
Last week, Health Canada announced it had authorized Moderna’s new formulation, which targets the recent KP.2 subvariant, and that shipments would arrive within days.
A decision on Pfizer’s new formulation is expected in the next few weeks.
Comments closedThe federal government has decided against procuring a protein-based COVID-19 vaccine for the fall immunization campaign — despite it being the only type that some immunocompromised people say they have been able to tolerate.
While the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna are effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalization and death, some people with autoimmune diseases say the jabs can come with a terrible trade-off.
Comments closedLinda Wilhelm, 64, of Bloomfield, N.B., is planning a road trip to the United States. But it’s not to go sightseeing or shopping.
Wilhelm, who suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis, hopes to get the updated Novavax COVID-19 vaccine, which won’t be available in Canada as part of the fall vaccination campaign, unless provinces and territories order doses on their own.
Wilhelm, president of the Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance and a member of the Canadian Immunocompromised Advocacy Network, says the protein-based vaccine is a better option for immunocompromised people like her than the more common Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines. She says she feels “expendable” and urges the federal government to reconsider.
Less than two months ago, the network wrote to numerous federal, provincial and territorial officials, calling for improved access to Novavax and increased awareness.
Comments closed
