Trudeau gets second COVID-19 shot, mixes vaccines

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is going to have a two-dose summer, getting his second COVID-19 vaccine on Friday.

He joins more than a third of Canadians who have been fully immunized.

Saying he’s excited, Trudeau received his second dose at a Rexall pharmacy in Ottawa. Not only is the prime minister now double-dosed, he also is among the many who have mixed vaccines, receiving a Moderna shot Friday after getting AstraZeneca as his first vaccine.

In a conversation with the pharmacist, Trudeau admits he had some side effects after his first jab.

“Tough night of slight chills and fevers. But that was it, came away pretty quick. It’s how I knew it worked,” he was heard saying.

In early June, Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) gave the go-ahead for people to take different vaccines for their first and second doses. NACI updated its guidance to say a second shot of an mRNA vaccine, Moderna or Pfizer, can be the follow-up to a first dose of AstraZeneca. However, it added if you had an mRNA shot as your first dose, you should be given an mRNA as your second shot.

The updated guidance came after concerns were raised about the AstraZeneca vaccine and its potential link to rare blood clots. It also came after there were worries about supply of AstraZeneca shots.

Meanwhile, the prime minister is also visiting a vaccination clinic Friday morning before holding a news conference.

Just under 70 per cent of Canada’s total population have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. More than 30 per cent have received two.

A recent poll from Abacus Data shows vaccine hesitancy in our country has dropped from nearly 40 per cent in early March to a new low of just 16 per cent.

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