Tam warns that full vaccination does not equal full protection from COVID-19

OTTAWA – Canada’s chief public health officer is reminding Canadians that even those who are fully vaccinated are not completely immune to COVID-19.

Speaking today at a virtual townhall for Yukoners, Dr. Theresa Tam says the risk of asymptomatic infection and transmission is far lower for anyone who receives two shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines.

But she notes that immunization is “not absolute.”

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Tam says studies show that vaccination “reduces the amount of virus in the back of your nose,” which in turn dials down the risk of spreading COVID-19 to others, especially after the second dose.

Tam also says young people, who often work in essential services and sit at the bottom of vaccination priority queues, now have the highest case rates and can transmit the virus despite showing no symptoms.

Alberta and other parts of Canada remain mired in the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as hospitalization rates have started to tick downward in provinces such as Ontario and Quebec.