Many Albertans will have to start paying for a COVID-19 vaccine this year. In a press release Friday, the Government of Alberta said it was reducing eligibility for publicly-funded immunizations for the virus. The province said just over 1 million COVID-19 vaccines were wasted in the 2023-24 respiratory virus season, equating to 54 per cent of Alberta’s order that year. It said the decision was made in response to changes to the federal vaccine procurement process earlier this year, which made provinces responsible for buying their own vaccines. “Now that Alberta’s government is responsible for procuring vaccines, it’s important to better determine how many vaccines are needed to support efforts to minimize waste and control costs,” release said. The new vaccine program will roll out in four phases. During the first, only residents in senior’s supportive living and home care will be able to get a vaccine for free. The second phase will open provincially-funded COVID-19 vaccines to people with underlying medical conditions or compromised immune systems, people living in congregate living accommodations, people on social programs like AISH or income support or people experiencing homelessness. In the third and fourth phases, all other Albertans starting with those 65 years old or older will be able to purchase a vaccine. Sarah Hoffman, Alberta NDP shadow minister for health, released a statement calling the decision “callous” and “anti-science.” “It’s cruel for the UCP government to put further financial burdens on Albertans who want to protect their health and their loved ones and not get COVID,” Hoffman said in the release. “If the UCP government was really interested in eliminating waste and protecting the health of Albertans it would be promoting vaccines. That way the supply would get used and we would keep ourselves and our loved ones safe.” Lorian Hardcastle, an associate professor at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Law and Cummings School of Medicine, said stopping funding for the COVID-19 vaccine sends a message that it’s no longer needed. “And indeed that vaccines in general perhaps aren’t as crucial as people need to understand that they are,” she added. “Alberta already has lower-than-the-national-average vaccination rates on some of the other vaccines, and so this is only really going to make that situation worse.” According to the Alberta government’s respiratory virus dashboard, 3,031 people have been hospitalized for COVID-19 since September, 189 people were admitted into the intensive care unit and 368 people died. The province said COVID-19 vaccines will remain available until the current supply is used. It did not give a timeline for the rollout of the new program and said the cost of a vaccine was still being determined. Anyone who would like a COVID-19 vaccine can pre-order one starting Aug. 11. The officer of the minister of primary and preventative health services said no changes to other vaccine programs were being considered “at this time.”
