CAIRE members area

This meeting presented opportunities for discussion on which factors make Canada an attractive place to undertake vaccine research, and what are the barriers that make Canada less competitive. Through having perspectives from different stakeholders, this meeting was able to explore how the Canadian landscape fares with other key countries/regions as well as to strategize potential solutions to minimize barriers.

The overall goal of this meeting is to present current issues with regards to approved and recommended vaccines that are not included in publicly funded programs from different viewpoints. In addition, the meeting will discuss potential solutions to address these challenges.

The overall goal of this meeting was to discuss how vaccination recommendations were developed and implemented across Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic, including how provinces and territories (PT) balanced the guidance provided by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) with local considerations while implementing their COVID-19 vaccination programs.

Exclusion of pregnant and breastfeeding women from the pivotal randomized controlled trials for COVID-19 vaccines that led to emergency regulatory approval created gaps in data needed for vaccine policy, healthcare provider recommendations, and women’s decisions about vaccination. We argue that such knowledge gaps increase potential for vaccine hesitancy and misinformation relating to the health of women and infants, and that these gaps in evidence are avoidable.