How Ottawa's mistakes ensured you'll likely be vaccinated six months later than everyone else

 

A cascade of government failures ensured Canada will be gripped by COVID-19 long after the rest of the G7 has reopened

Canada is now so far behind the rest of the developed world in its vaccination rollout that it’s generatinginternationalheadlines. As you might have noticed if you’re a Canadian, not many of us are vaccinated against COVID-19 right now. As of publication, a mere 2.8% of us have gotten the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and only 1% of us have gotten both doses. So, in all of Canada, the amount of people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 is roughly equivalent to the population of London, Ont.

The Americans are sticking as many arms every single day as Canada has done this entire pandemic. Let’s just say Israel might already be done with this whole COVID-19 thing. Canada is now behind more than 40 countries in terms of COVID-19 vaccinations per capita. On May 6, the Government of Canada announces a deal with CanSino, a Chinese company that was developing what was then one of the world’s most promising vaccine candidates.

The arrangement was that Canada would conduct human trials for the CanSino vaccine and then, once it was approved, we’d manufacture it within our own borders. 5 that Canada could finally announce a contract with Pfizer and Moderna, makers of the two most widely used vaccines. Evidence is continuing to emerge that Ottawa repeatedly turned down domestic offers for vaccine production. There’s some debate over how much Ottawa is responsible for our horrific vaccine rollout, but when you spend more money than anyone else and end up in a situation where you’ll be experiencing death and economic collapse for 30 weeks longer than any other country with similar resources, I think it’s fair to call that a failure.

Source: Tristin Hopper | NP