We’re vaccinated!

To stop the spread of the virus. Although measures such as hand-washing, mask-wearing and physical distancing are helpful at limiting your chances of exposure and transmission, the only way to ultimately stop the pandemic and get life back to normal is widespread vaccination – just as for historical infectious diseases such as smallpox and measles. Community immunity is only achievable if a large majority of British Columbians choose to be immunized. When you choose to be vaccinated against COVID-19, you are helping save lives by protecting your family and entire community from the virus. 

Canada has one of the most rigorous regulatory systems in the world for new vaccines. Despite the expedited pace of vaccine development and approval, the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines passed all the required stages to ensure their safety before they were cleared for use in Canada.

All of the approved vaccines are considered safe and offer strong protection against moderate and severe cases of COVID-19. Canada’s National Council on Immunization recently declared that mRNA vaccines are marginally preferred due to an extremely rare, but serious, blood-clotting disorder associated with viral vector vaccines. The latter are still safe and  the best option for people who are do not want to  to wait for an mRNA shot.

B.C.’s vaccinations are now underway, in order of age and priority. Read this post to learn more about B.C.’s COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout.

Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca require a first dose and a booster, while the Janssen vaccine is a single dose. Your healthcare provider will advise you on the required timing.

The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are Messenger RNA (mRNA)-based,  They work by “teaching” cells to create a spike protein that triggers an immune response – without exposure to the virus itself. This causes the body to produce antibodies that fight off infection.

The AstraZeneca and Jansen vaccines are adenovirus vector vaccines, which use an inert virus, like the one that causes the common cold, as a delivery system. The vector virus produces the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and the body is then able to build an immune response.

No. The benefit of mRNA and viral vector vaccines is that vaccinated individuals gain protection against infection without exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. None of the approved COVID-19 vaccines contain any COVID-19 particles, live nor inert.

Most are similar to other vaccines, and they typically clear up within 24 hours: injection site pain or mild swelling, fatigue, light fever headache, muscle pain and joint pain. These are signs that the immune system is kicking in. During clinical trials, older adults were found to have decreased and less-pronounced side effects associated with the vaccine compared with other populations.

While we don’t have a definitive answer to this question, emerging data suggests that vaccination significantly reduces transmission. Clinical trials will continue for another two years, so we will eventually learn, definitively, whether vaccinated people can transmit the virus.

Yes, for now we must continue exercising COVID-safe measures such as masking, vigorous hand washing and physical distancing. This is because experts are still not able to confirm, with certainty, that vaccinated individuals can transmit COVID-19, and we also currently don’t know for certain how long the vaccines confer immunity.

Absolutely. When moving in, we simply ask new residents who have been vaccinated to take a rapid COVID test or PCR test provided by PARC’s Wellness Nurse. A three-day in-suite isolation follows, allowing the new arrival plenty of time to settle in and unpack before joining the larger resident population. Non-vaccinated residents must wait until August 2021 before moving to PARC.