Erindale Health Centre Vaccine Exemptions
Our clinic physicians and staff are strong supporters of COVID vaccinations. As medical scientists, we recognize the importance of vaccination as prophylaxis for this very communicable disease. COVID is overwhelming our province’s health-care resources and we are concerned for the well-being of our patients. COVID vaccination is a proactive measure that contributes to the safety of our patients, health team members, and their families and friends by reducing the probability of infection, the severity of infection, the rate of transmission to others, and finally, the chance of dying.
Our patients with vaccine hesitancy often pose questions to us around safety and efficacy of the COVID vaccines. These vaccines are highly efficacious (94% effective in preventing severe disease, hospitalizations and death). This outcome is far better than most medications and treatments we routinely give to patients.
The incidence of side effects attributable to COVID vaccination is also exceedingly rare, and again less prevalent than those associated with routinely prescribed treatments or patient life-style choices. For example, the risk of blood clots associated with Astra Zeneca vaccination is 0.00004% vs. birth control pill 0.75% or smoking 0.18%.
mRNA technology (the basis of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines) is not as new as some patients may believe. This highly acclaimed technology has been around since the 1990’s. We firmly believe that it will be the foundation for the development of most new vaccines and new medical treatments, possibly including cancer treatments. We find this technology exciting and are happy to embrace it. Most other vaccines contain killed viruses or virus particles which allow our bodies to develop protective antibodies. mRNA vaccines do not contain any virus - live or killed. Instead, mRNA vaccines carry instructions of the spike protein which tell our cells how to actually make the spike protein. Since the spike protein is a ‘foreign protein’ unknown to our body, we develop antibodies to it which in turn confer protection to the actual COVID virus. As soon as the mRNA instructions are complete our cells destroy them. mRNA vaccines do not enter into our cell nucleus where our DNA is, so the vaccine does not interact with, or alter, our DNA.
The only medical exemption for COVID vaccination recognized by the Saskatchewan Health Authority is anaphylaxis to one of the existing COVID vaccines or one of its constituents. This is exceedingly rare. Please do not ask our physicians for a medical exemption from COVID vaccination unless you have a documented history of anaphylaxis. Issuing exemptions outside this narrow exception would be a serious violation of health regulations and an egregious breach our ethical obligations, and accordingly, we are not prepared to entertain these requests.
