Toronto
Count your blessings if you are impatient with the rate of vaccine distribution in Covid-19 in the US. At least you did not live in Canada. As of Wednesday, my country has administered only 3.52 vaccine doses per 100 people, according to Oxford University’s Our World in Data website. At 5 p.m., the U.S. also did almost five times. The figures were 80.07 in Israel, 25.04 in the United Kingdom and 5.40 in the European Union.
Why is Canada such a backlog among developed countries? The government of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has not negotiated contracts with established drug companies. On the contrary, it has 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 through agreements with Pfizer, Moderna and other companies. “I would not have put all our eggs in the basket of China,” Erin O’Toole, leader of the Conservative Party, told reporters.
When Canada and other countries experienced a significant increase in Covid-19 cases last month (which has now dropped), Pfizer reduced its shipment to my country by more than two-thirds for a few weeks. Moderna announced that only three-quarters of the vaccines would arrive in Canada in early February.
Other options are off the table for now. Although Canada has purchased a total of 398 million doses, more than 70% are vaccines that have not been approved by health officials. The Liberals have pointed fingers at drug companies and provincial governments.