Toronto
If you are impatient with the pace of distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine in the USA, count your blessings. At least you don’t live in Canada. As of Wednesday, my country had administered just 3.52 doses of vaccine per 100 people, according to Oxford University’s Our World in Data website. The USA, at 5 pm, was also doing almost five times. The figures were 80.07 in Israel, 25.04 in the UK and 5.40 in the European Union.
Why is Canada so laggard among developed nations? Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has not negotiated contracts with established pharmaceutical companies. Instead, it quietly approved a working relationship between Canadian researchers and a Chinese vaccine manufacturer, CanSino Biologics Inc. CanSino abandoned its project in August after several failures. Ottawa then had to rush into deals with Pfizer, Moderna and other companies. “I wouldn’t put all of our eggs in China’s basket,” Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole told reporters.
When Canada and other countries saw a significant increase in Covid-19 cases last month (which has now decreased), Pfizer reduced its shipments to my country by more than two-thirds over several weeks. Moderna announced that only three quarters of its vaccines would arrive in Canada in early February.
Other options are off the table for now. Although Canada has purchased 398 million doses in all, more than 70% are vaccines that have not received approval from health authorities. Liberals pointed the finger at pharmaceutical companies and provincial governments.