Mass vaccination clinics are back in Sackville as of Monday.
The Corner Drug Store is collaborating with Public Health and Vitalité Health Network to take over the Tantramar Civic Centre on Monday and administer roughly 450 doses of Moderna vaccine.
Emails and texts to those already on the Corner Drug waiting list are being sent out offering appointments at the clinic for Monday. You can register for a Corner Drug vaccine clinic on their website: thecornerdrugstore.ca
Here’s Charles Beaver speaking with Erica Butler on Thursday evening, as Corner Drug staff were finishing up another day of vaccinations at their shop.
Vitalité Health Network hosted its last vaccination clinic at the Tantramar Civic Centre on June 5, and then put a pause on mass clinics in Sackville, with the next scheduled clinic weeks away on July 14. That meant Sackvillians looking for a second dose could either wait in the queue at local pharmacies or head to Moncton for clinics there. But now, the queue at pharmacies is about to move much more quickly.
If first dose uptake is any indication, then there are a lot of Sackvillians on the hunt for a second dose right now. According to New Brunswick health department spokesperson Gail Harding, the first-dose vaccination rate recorded in the Sackville area is above 84%, considerably higher than the provincial average at the time of 76.5% of people 12 and over.
As of Thursday evening, Beaver says 140 spots out of 450 in Monday’s clinic were already filled, and emails and texts would be going out to help fill up the rest. “We’re working with our technology provider because until now, we haven’t had an opportunity to invite that many people in one day,” says Beaver.
“And there’s still space for dose one folks,” says Beaver. “I encourage anyone who is 18 or over to, you know, ask questions if they’re hesitant, but certainly the Moderna is an mRNA vaccine. It’s just as effective as Pfizer. It’s not the Gucci of vaccines, but it’s still as good as the best.”
Monday’s mass clinic will make use of Corner Drug administrative and medical staff, the Vitalité lease on the Civic Centre, additional staff from public health, and volunteer support from the Sackville Rotary Club. “It’s sort of a hybrid model,” says Charles Beaver.
“I’ve long dreamt of the day when we’d have more vaccine than we have capacity to administer it,” says Beaver, who first spoke to then-acting Mayor Ron Aiken about the possible use of the facility early in the vaccination rollout.
Beaver says that New Brunswick department of health staff reached out to him about a week ago to see what could be done to increase access in Sackville. “They were seeking partners to work with to to provide the service here in Sackville, and it was a good fit,” says Beaver. “Then a lot of work gets done by a whole lot of people, and the result is we can provide the service in large quantity now.”
Beaver is planning for 450 doses of Moderna at Monday’s clinic, which he says is conservative. “I believe we could actually, efficiently and very safely, administer quite a few more than that,” says Beaver. “But having not done this before on this scale, I felt it prudent to be a little more conservative.”
“Assuming this goes well, and knowing the magnitude of the waiting list, we expect to be able to do maybe two or three more similar events to clear the roughly 2000 folks that are now waiting for the service that we already know about,” says Beaver.
Those 2000 people are folks that have registered online with Corner Drug, though Beaver says it’s possible some people have sought their second dose elsewhere since registering.
Previously, at their store location, Corner Drug was administering about 130 shots per day. Now with more space for people to keep distanced while waiting out their 15-minute post-shot reaction period, and with extra people giving shots, the capacity multiplies.
Appointments for those registered in the Corner Drug system are being sent out in order of when people received their first dose, regardless of where that was, says Beaver. And if people are concerned about getting Moderna as a second dose, Beaver says they might want to be more concerned about the Delta variant.
“I encourage anybody who’s thinking, oh, I might hold out for Pfizer, to think about that long and hard because the Delta variant is out there, and we know that one dose is really not that effective against it,” says Beaver, pointing out the increase in interprovincial travel happening, not just within the Atlantic provinces, but with the rest of Canada, which could mean additional travel-related cases of the Delta variant arrive, quite possibly undetected.
Double doses of mRNA vaccines are testing into the high 90% range for preventing severe disease against the Delta variant, says Beaver. AstraZeneca, two weeks after a second dose, also tests in the 90% range for preventing severe disease against the Delta variant.
“I think part of the reason that the Delta variant is wreaking havoc in the UK right now is actually when you look closely,” says Beaver, “they have very high vaccination rates, but not that high second dose vaccination rates. And that’s the key. The mRNA vaccine following an AstraZeneca actually gives exceptionally good protection against the Delta variant as well.”
“The severe disease is prevented very well by any combination of of two doses, two weeks after the second dose,” says Beaver. “So that’s why it’s so important to get them very soon, and why so many people are working very long, hard hours and, and working well together.”
“I must say I’m so proud of our team and the community at large for their support, because this is an emergency and we have to get this done as quickly as possible to protect our community.”
