This document provides guidance to vaccine manufacturers seeking authorization for their vaccine that targets the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This guidance applies to applications under the interim order respecting the importation, sale and advertising of drugs for use in relation to COVID-19.

When a company decides it would like to sell a drug or vaccine in Canada, it files a submission with Health Canada. A new drug submission contains detailed scientific information about the drug's safety, efficacy and quality. Health Canada scientific reviewers evaluate data to assess the potential benefits and risks of a drug or vaccine. They also review the information that will be provided to health care practitioners and consumers about the product. After the review, we may authorize the drug or vaccine for sale in Canada only if the benefits of the product outweigh the potential risks.

COVID-19 Reopening Data from Associated Press and Kantar Media

Access regularly updated data from The Associated Press and Kantar Media containing information on events at the global, national and state levels as economies reopen following the coronavirus pandemic via AP Planner.

AP Planner is a paid service from The Associated Press & Kantar Media.

The four data files below feature the following event types:

• Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG): Events related the factors that measure the sustainability and societal impact of an investment in a company or business.
• Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Bio Tech: Health care providers and services, health care equipment and supplies, and health care technology companies. Drug and vaccine production, as well as biological substances for the purposes of drug discovery and diagnostic development.
• Politics: U.S. political news and events.
• Diversity and Discrimination: News and events related to race, religion, gender, sexuality, disability and age.

All data is compiled by a dedicated staff with over 15 years of forward planning research experience, employing data verification and processes designed to provide reliable and up-to-date information.

The data can be used to help:

• Provide signals to investors on how to act and at what speed based on the types of events returning across industries.
• Analyze risk associated with companies based on when they're reopening.
• Retain your own customer base based on reopening dates for vendors and competitors.
• Track COVID regulations to prepare inventory and guest policies.

The following data files are samples - if you are interested in licensing the full, regularly updated database, please contact Opal Barclay (obarclay@ap.org) at The Associated Press or Click on Request Access Button above.

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FAQs

Why does AP and Kantar compile this data?_ The data is sourced from AP Planner, a product offered by The Associated Press and Kantar Media. AP Planner is a searchable database of future events that is updated daily and intended for research, not publication.

What information does AP Planner contain?_ AP Planner is global in scope and contains more than 100,000 U.S. and international events from the world of news, current affairs, politics, business, lifestyle and more - all searchable up to 12 months ahead.

Where does the information come from?_ AP Planner aggregates listings from tens of thousands of organizations worldwide. Our research staff monitors over 350,000 websites and uses a verity of secondary sources including press releases, corporate announcements and other outlets to ensure accuracy.

How can I be confident of the data's quality and accuracy?_ We have a dedicated research staff with over 15 years of forward planning research experience. They employ data verification and updating processes designed to provide our customers with completely reliable and up-to-date information.

Can I export data into other applications?_ Yes, AP Planner data can be exported as an Excel file or an Outlook calendar file. The data is also accessible via API.

Who can I contact to learn more about AP Planner?_ Opal Barclay, obarclay@ap.org.

💉 COVID-19 Vaccine Adverse Events (2020-2025): VAERS Real-World Surveillance Data This dataset offers a critical, large-scale look into the real-world safety surveillance of COVID-19 vaccines, sourced from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Maintained by the CDC and FDA, this collection spans the unprecedented period of mass vaccination from 2020 through 2025, providing an invaluable resource for pharmacovigilance, public health research, and regulatory decision-making.

Key Features & Challenge The dataset is a rich blend of structured and unstructured information detailing reported Adverse Drug Events (ADEs), which range from mild local reactions to severe, life-threatening complications.

Structured Data: Includes standardized symptom codes, offering a direct, quantitative view of reported reactions.

Free-Text Notes: Contains verbose, real-world symptom descriptions provided by reporters. This text is a "treasure trove" of granular context, including details on duration, intensity, and location of symptoms.

The Challenge: The structured entries are limited in scope. The free-text notes, while rich, are inherently noisy and lack standardized metadata such as clinical severity scores or age-specific pattern normalization.

Value to Data Scientists This dataset presents a significant Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) challenge:

Extracting Context: Develop models to effectively extract critical clinical context (e.g., "headache lasting three days, severe") from the raw, non-standardized free-text notes.

Standardizing Severity: Create predictive models to assign standardized severity and age-specific risk patterns to ADEs.

Informed Decision Making: The ultimate goal is to generate actionable, timely insights for regulators, healthcare providers, and pharmaceutical companies, improving both vaccine safety monitoring and public trust.

Dive into this dataset to apply your skills in advanced data cleaning, feature engineering, and state-of-the-art NLP to solve a crucial, high-impact public health challenge.

Factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among participants.

Socio-demographic characteristics and distribution of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance (n = 377).

BackgroundAmidst widespread public health recommendations and availability of COVID-19 vaccinations, half of South African adults are vaccinated against COVID-19. This study investigated the socio-behavioral determinants of vaccine hesitancy in South Africa, where vaccine hesitancy was separated into unwilling ness and uncertainty to take a COVID-19 vaccine.MethodsData was collected from a large-scale public survey during June–October 2021 that included online and telephonic surveys. Vaccination hesitancy was based on the question “When available, would you take the COVID 19 vaccine?,” with responses categorized into those who were willing, unwilling, and uncertain about taking a COVID-19 vaccine. Multinomial regression examined the association between socio-behavioral variables and vaccine hesitancy.ResultsOverall, 73.8% reported they would definitely or probably take the vaccine, 16.4% were uncertain and 9.9% reported they probably or definitely would not (n = 16,988). Younger age, White and Colored population groups, no influenza vaccination history, previous vaccination refusal, knowing someone who experienced a serious vaccination side-effect, misperceptions about vaccine benefits, cultural or religious discouragement from taking a COVID-19 vaccination, lack of governmental confidence, concerns about side-effects, perceived lack of safety information, and lack of trust in the pharmaceutical industry and in the information from health care providers were all associated with higher odds of being uncertain and unwilling to take a COVID-19 vaccination. Strengths of association for unwillingness and uncertainty varied by the explanatory variables. Concern about effectiveness due to fast development was associated with uncertainty to take the vaccine but not with unwillingness. Concerns about side-effects had stronger associations with uncertainty than with unwillingness, while previous vaccine refusal, misperceptions of the protective benefits of vaccines, White population group, religious/cultural discouragement, and lack of trust in the pharmaceutical industry and health care providers’ information had stronger associations with unwillingness than uncertainty.ConclusionThe determinants of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy should be addressed in interventions to improve vaccine uptake. Public health interventions and health communication can be prioritized and tailored to the different forms of vaccination hesitancy.