1/Re. NACI’s recent communications. No one is saying to hide info from the public. What people are concerned about is the way that info is being conveyed (and to some extent, its accuracy). IMO, here is how they should have framed this:

2/First: all vaccines are extremely effective. All of them, including the AZ vaccine, will prevent severe disease and death in close to 100% of people. This is NOT about effectiveness.

3/Second: if you got your AZ vaccine over a month ago, you are golden – you will not get this clotting complication and you should have ZERO REGRETS!

4/The AZ vaccine, and to a lesser extent, the J&J vaccine are associated with an extremely low risk of an unusual type of clotting complication. In most cases, we can catch that complication and treat it completely.

5/Because COVID is so active in most parts of the country, the risk of catching the virus, and even the risk of dying of COVID are much higher than the risk of this complication. So for the vast majority of people, the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risk.

6/In fact, this complication is so rare that the average Canadian’s chances of dying in a car accident over 1 yr are about 10x higher than having this complication, and the average Canadian’s chances of dying of COVID since the start of the pandemic have been about 100x higher.

7/There are always exceptions. If you live in a low risk neighbourhood, and/or are at extremely low risk (e.g. you never leave your house), it may be reasonable to wait for an mRNA vaccine, which doesn’t have this type of complication.

8/If you think your risk of contracting COVID is really low, here is a tool to help you to compare that risk with the risk of a vaccine complication: insert infographic decision aid comparing COVID vs VITT risk by: age, comorbidities, basic risk behaviours, community incidence.

9/If you are the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, then surely you can muster the resources to accompany your advice for “informed consent” with a tool that will enable that otherwise very complex informed consent process in the real world. It’s on you.