Addressing the Vaccine-Hesitant

"It's a good vaccine. But it's not an mRNA vaccine, and we have approved it."

"It's not a bad idea, as long as  you have an honest conversation with people about what the risks and benefits are, and one of the risks, of course, is a pretty severe blood-clotting event."

"If it would get more people vaccinated, and people can make an informed decision, I think it would be really wise to have an alternative, if people wanted it."

Dr.Isaac Bogoch, infectious diseases specialist, Toronto

"Your body doesn't have the cellular machinery to reverse from RNA to DNA. It's kind of like speculating you can flap your arms and fly without feathers."

"[All vaccines authorized in Canada are] really, really good. Humans are made of twisted timbers. [Some say the technology is] too new [though researchers worked on it since the 2003 SARS-1 outbreak]."

"There's always an excuse for hesitation that can be built around any technology. I just see this as the latest in that long history."

Dr. Amir Attaran, professor of law and health policy, University of Ottawa

 (Dirk Waem/BELGA/AFP via Getty Images)

A desperate solution is sought to an impasse between health authorities and the millions of Canadians still uncertain, along with hard-core anti-vaxxers who refuse to be inoculated against COVID-19 imperilling plans to vaccinate sufficient numbers of eligible people to produce the hoped-for 'herd-effect' that would neutralize the menace of contagion by SARS-CoV-2 causing COVID. Those in government who rely on the professional advice of medical experts see agreement that the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine might fill part of the vacuum.

In Saskatchewan and Alberta, the two western provinces of Canada with the lowest vaccine uptake rate and the commensurately higher infection rate hope is that in offering the Janssen single-shot those who are hesitant might be convinced to being vaccinated. The J&J vaccine is a viral vector like AstraZeneca. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization had advised in May that Pfizer and Moderna represented preferred vaccines in view of a rare risk of a blood-clotting disorder.

Following that, thousands of AZ appointments were never met, attributed to news reports of its potential side effects. March saw authorization of the Janssen vaccine and months later the government of Canada announced its donation of ten million unused doses to low-income countries in view of plentiful supplies of Pfizer and Moderna with little demand for any other vaccine. Offering the J&J single-shot vaccine is a gamble, with uncertainty over how many people will express interest in "a vaccine but not an mRNA" vaccine.

Johnson&Johnson, however, recently recommended a booster shot, in other words a second dose, to increase antibody levels. Blood-clotting potential in these vaccines is a concern. Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome causes unusual blood clotting and low platelet levels in blood which increase risk of strokes or heart attacks. U.S. data reveal an estimated one in 300,000 people vaccinated with Janssen's COVID vaccine have the potential to develop TTS in comparison to one in 100,000 with AstraZeneca.

mRNA vaccines on the other hand, are not seen to risk TTS events. Which hasn't stopped misinformation that mRNA vaccines have the potential to modify DNA, permanently altering people's attributes, including causing sterility in women. That Pfizer and Moderna make use of genetically engineered messenger RNA instructing body cells in producing spike protein that SARS-CoV-02 uses to latch onto and invade cells makes people suspicious of its supposed intrusion into other areas of cell integrity.

J&J has been used in the U.S. to vaccinate 15 million Americans, where the largest concerns motivating the unvaccinated to become inoculated against COVID have been, understandably, rising hospitalization rates and death rates, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. According to Health Canada -- of 15,090 reports of adverse events after vaccination representing 0.029 percent of all doses administered, 4,288 (0.008 percent of all administered doses) were rated to be serious complications.

Some Albertans are demanding access to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for faster access to full immunity - particularly now the province has adopted an opt-in vaccine passport system. (Christophe Gateau/dpa/The Associated Press)