Alberta\u2019s decision to reduce access to publicly funded COVID-19 vaccines so far appears to set the province on a different course than many other Canadian jurisdictions.<\/p>\n
Most Albertans will no longer be eligible for a free COVID-19 shot this fall.<\/p>\n
The provincial government recently announced plans to limit coverage to specific high-risk groups<\/a>, including Albertans living in care homes and group settings, those receiving home care, people on social programs such as AISH, and immunocompromised individuals.<\/p>\n All other seniors, pregnant Albertans and health care workers are not included, despite strong recommendations by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization<\/a>\u00a0(NACI) that they should be vaccinated. NACI also recommends that everyone else may receive an annual dose.<\/p>\n The Alberta government has cited vaccine waste as a key reason for its decision. It pegs the cost at roughly $110 per dose and estimates $135 million worth of vaccines have been discarded.<\/p>\n \u201cI think over the last number of years we\u2019ve seen Alberta become more of an outlier when it comes to vaccine policy and vaccine programming,\u201d said Dr. Samir Sinha, a geriatrician and director of health policy research at the National Institute on Ageing.<\/p>\n \u201cAs far as I know right now Alberta is the only province in the country that has diverged from the NACI recommendations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alberta\u2019s decision to reduce access to publicly funded COVID-19 vaccines so far appears to set the province on a different course than many other Canadian jurisdictions.<\/p>\n Most Albertans will no longer be eligible for a free COVID-19 shot this fall.<\/p>\n The provincial government recently announced plans to limit coverage to specific high-risk groups<\/a>, including Albertans living in care homes and group settings, those receiving home care, people on social programs such as AISH, and immunocompromised individuals.<\/p>\n All other seniors, pregnant Albertans and health care workers are not included, despite strong recommendations by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization<\/a>\u00a0(NACI) that they should be vaccinated. NACI also recommends that everyone else may receive an annual dose.<\/p>\n