Dear Residents and Families,

We remain committed to providing updates to our residents, families, and staff at AgeCare. As such, we are providing weekly updates to keep you all informed on what is happening at our communities and organization-wide.

This weekly update includes:

1. Vaccine Facts & Fiction – Information on common myths around the COVID-19 vaccine.
   
2. Visitation Guidelines – How to stay safe during your visits
3. Recreation & Activities - An update on our recreation and activities as the need to stay active, intellectually stimulated, and socially connected never ends.
4. Weekly Shout Out - Sharing good news stories and gratitude for our residents, staff and community.

Thank you all for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Cindy Kahlon,
Administrator
Harmony Court Estate & Care Centre

Vaccine Facts and Fiction

Since December 2020, COVID-19 Vaccinations have been rolling out around the world. While the majority of our residents have now been vaccinated, there is still work to do in ensuring staff like you feel informed and confident to book your first and second vaccination appointments.

Since the COVID-19 vaccine has been approved, the medical community worldwide has been closely monitoring and studying it as more and more people become vaccinated. We wanted to take the opportunity to debunk some popular myths about the vaccine.

MYTH: The COVID-19 vaccine can make you sick with COVID-19

FACT: None of the approved vaccines (or vaccines in development) contain the live COVID-19 virus.

No live virus means you cannot get COVID-19 from the vaccine. You may have heard of people getting COVID-19 after receiving the vaccine. The COVID-19 vaccine is not a cure. It helps prevent infection but is not a barrier to getting COVID-19. Some vaccinated people are still getting infected, and a subset of these individuals are still getting sick.

In those who contract COVID-19, the vaccine reduces the risks of getting seriously ill from the disease. Some vaccinated individuals experience no symptoms, while others have milder symptoms.

MYTH: The vaccine was developed too quickly – the side effects are still unknown.

FACT: All COVID-19 Vaccines went through the same approval steps all vaccinations must complete.

COVID-19 is a global health crisis, and as such, for one of the first times in history, the entire medical and scientific community were focused on one goal - a safe and effective way to prevent COVID-19.

With safety as a priority, all vaccines go through three basic stages of development:

1. Exploratory stage
2. Pre-clinical stage
3. Clinical stage

On January 11, 2020, the genetic code of the virus that causes COVID-19 was published. This allowed scientists from all over the world to start finding vaccines. Following all of the same approvals and testing all vaccines must pass, safe and effective vaccines began to emerge. Only those proven safe, effective, and of high quality have been approved for use in Canada. Learn more about how the vaccine was made

MYTH: The COVID-19 vaccine causes infertility and miscarriages

FACT: Neither the COVID-19 vaccine nor the virus itself has been shown to increase the instances of infertility or miscarriages.

While it is common to exclude pregnant women from all clinical trials, including the COVID-19 vaccine ones, no other viral infection or vaccination-inducing immunity responses, have been shown to cause infertility or miscarriages. With this precedent, there is no scientific reason to believe this would be different with the COVID-19 vaccination.

If you were to contract COVID-19, your immune system would generate the same antibodies and proteins needed to fight off the virus. This is the same thing that happens when your body learns how to fight the virus from a vaccine. If the COVID-19 vaccine affected fertility, we would have already seen a spike in miscarriages and infertility in women infected with COVID-19. Globally, this has not happened. It is now the official recommendation that pregnant women receive their vaccinations as soon as possible. To date, thousands of pregnant women around the world have been vaccinated.

MYTH: There are a lot of side effects and adverse reactions to the vaccine.

FACT: About 0.011% of doses administered in Canada have had a serious adverse effect.

*Over 4.8 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered globally. **In Canada, over 50 million doses have been administered. Of those, only 0.018% reported having an adverse effect, with the most common being soreness and redness at the site of the injection. Of the 50 million doses given to Canadians only 0.006% have reported a serious effect.

**There have been over 1.4 million cases of COVID-19 in Canada, and 26,719 people have died. COVID-19 has killed over 1,700 British Columbia alone. COVID-19 is more deadly than any risk the vaccine may present.

* source: Global Change Data Lab (Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford), August 18, 2021
**source: Government of Canada Health Infobase, August 18, 2021

MYTH: The COVID-19 vaccine will alter my DNA

FACT: The Pfizer and Moderna vaccine use mRNA, which does not tamper with DNA.

mRNA vaccines work by teaching your existing cells how to make a protein that triggers the immune response needed to fight off COVID-19. Once your cells learn this, they will break down the mRNA, and it will be gone from your body. Injecting an mRNA vaccine into your body does not interact with or alter the DNA of your cells. Both vaccines have proven to be safe and effective.

MYTH: I’ve already had COVID-19 so I don’t need the vaccine.

FACT: There is not enough known about COVID-19 to say how long immunity will last after the initial infection.

Studies are still being done to see how long natural immunity lasts after recovering from COVID-19. It is also unknown at this time how someone who was previously infected would react if they were exposed to a variant of concern.

With all of these unknowns, it is the recommendation of Health Canada to receive a vaccine even if you have already had COVID-19.

FINAL FACT
To return to our pre-pandemic lives, mass vaccination is critical.

Visitation Guidelines

Harmony Court Care Centre Visitation Guidelines

It is no longer a requirement to pre-book your visits with a resident in the care centre. Any scheduled visits that are booked on or after the 19th are no longer required, however, You are welcome to still come at those times as the hours are still within the new visiting hours.

It is strongly recommended that long-term care visitors are fully vaccinated with two doses (the second dose received a minimum of two weeks prior).

Fully Immunized

• Must wear a medical mask in all indoor public/common areas, including to and from the resident’s room.
• Can remove mask while visiting the resident in their suite or designated area.

Not Immunized or Partially Immunized

• Must wear a medical mask at all times, including visiting with the resident in their suite or indoor public/common areas.

Time:

To allow for screening, visiting hours are:

Monday through Sunday

9:30 am to 12:00 pm
1:30 pm to 5:00 pm
6:30 pm to 8:00 pm

Location:

• Visits can occur in the resident’s suite, designated areas, or outside.
• Whenever possible, residents residing in shared suites-(semi-private), visits should occur in a designated area or outside. If the visit is occurring in a shared suite, the number of visitors may be limited to maintain physical distance from the other residents.

When entering, visitors must be screened and follow ALL safe visiting practices and COVID-19 protocols.

Our recreation team is working hard to create engaging activities that enrich the mind, body and spirit. We are continuously looking for ways to reduce the risk of transmission while having the least impact on resident well-being.

Download the Care Centre Calendars:

• Rosewood Calendar
• Wedgewood Calendar

Download the Estate Activity Calendar:

• Harmony Court Estate Calendar

Weekly Shout-Out

This week we’re shouting out a very talented resident who recently shared with us a poem she wrote in honour of her 4^th anniversary of moving to Harmony Court. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Thank you Teresa for sharing with us.