Canada’s Abysmal Vaccine Distribution

Covid-19 Vaccine in Vials by Natalia Vaitkevich is licensed under Pexel.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought countries worldwide to a common goal: to find a solution to this deadly virus and get life back to normal. While some countries, like the UK, have been effective in approving the use of a vaccine and ensuring safe and rapid distribution, others, like Canada, have floundered, often finding it difficult to procure a vaccine or failing to effectively prevent the spread of the virus. Canada has not found ways to effectively curb the spread of the virus, proven by the rise in cases in the later months of 2020. It has mismanaged the waves of the virus, especially in January 2021 when the cases per day reached an all-time high of over 9000 because they waited until it was too late before placing restrictions on movement and social interactions. Canada also lacks the proper methods to effectively vaccinate its population, such as domestic manufacturing facilities and sufficient specialized freezers necessary for transport the vaccines to remote populations. Although the federal government has secured more than enough doses for all Canadians, the vaccine distribution and associated measures have left people highly frustrated.                        

While several vaccines have now been approved, there are still many unknowns, including their effectiveness against new strains from countries such as South Africa and Britain. Canada’s federal government has been ineffective in preventing the spread of these strains. The fluctuation of travel restrictions, such as pre-flight testing and the restriction of international flights ended up causing the number of cases in the final months of 2020 to skyrocket because of the lack of a hardline policy. Allowing commercial travel only added danger for the Canadian population, especially due to the rising cases and new variants in other countries. Further, the vaccine rollout policy has been abysmal. The federal government’s rollout plan involves providing Canadians with more than ten times the amount of doses necessary to vaccinate the entire population, spread across a period lasting until the end of 2021. However, only two vaccines have been approved in Canada: Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines. While this should theoretically be enough to vaccinate the entire Canadian population (the doses purchased from both firms totalling 120 million), the new vaccination rollout plan has been destabilized due to delays in these two firms’ production chains.

Despite slight delays in February, Trudeau has tried to assure Canadians that the COVID-19 vaccine distribution will continue as planned. As of March 11th, 2021, approximately 3.8 million doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines together have been distributed across Canada. This represents the vaccination of about 5.11% of the Canadian population over the span of 4 months. If we continue on this trajectory, Trudeau’s projected timeline for vaccine distribution across the country by September 2021 will not reach its goal. Canada is expected to catch up to its vaccine plan, having been assured by Moderna and Pfizer that Canada will be receiving 6 million of their pre-paid doses by the end of March 2021. Whether this will happen is another question altogether, but it is possible the deliveries augment significantly if Pfizer’s production increases with the upgrade of their production facilities.

Not only will Canada likely fail to reach its goal at the current rate of distribution, but it is also falling behind the vaccination process compared to the rest of developed countries around the world. As of March 14th, the US has vaccinated 107 million people (33% of total their population), and Britain has vaccinated 24 million people (36% of their total population). The lack of results by the Liberal government can be attributed to insufficient forethought. While the US was commencing Operation Warpspeed in May 2020, a plan to quickly develop and roll out the vaccine preventing COVID-19, Canada was focused mostly on “flattening the curve” and transmission of the virus. While this could have been effective, as was the case in Australia, the lack of foresight in terms of vaccination distribution has caused repercussions that have lasted until the present. Even with an overload of vaccines purchased for Canadians amounting to several doses per person, the lack of vaccines being distributed can be accounted for by the minimal vaccine deliveries from abroad that Canada has seen throughout the distribution process.

Due to a lack of production infrastructure, Canada has opted to purchase vaccines abroad rather than domestically produce them. The absence of domestically produced vaccines slows vaccine distribution both nationally and globally because Canada lacks the means to vaccinate its own population even though it would easily be able to finance it. Had the federal government begun building these facilities at the start of the pandemic, Canada could currently be much better situated. Canada’s existing facilities would need to meet certain requirements, such as technology like bioreactors, HEPA filters, or a packaging operation, to manufacture the vaccines being purchased abroad. The mistakes made by all levels of government throughout the COVID-19 pandemic have caused Canada to fall behind both the projected target of vaccinations and COVID-19 prevention due to the minimal amount of immunizations against the virus (1 million first doses out of a population of 35 million). As it is, Canada will only start producing vaccines against COVID-19 beginning in the fall of 2021, well behind other developed countries that have been producing and distributing vaccines since December 2020. The fiscal costs associated with building a production facility would now outweigh the social costs incurred because of a lack of vaccines to distribute. The deal with US firm Novavax is a step in the right direction; however, it is much too late to meet the targets outlined by the Canadian government. Since construction is meant to finish in the summer of 2021 and the domestically produced vaccine rollout is to begin in the fall of 2021 if the vaccine is approved for use in Canada, this means that domestically produced vaccines might not even be utilized in the country. Although the government has purchased enough vaccines for each Canadian to receive 10 doses, the federal government should have pushed for domestic production facilities last March when this pandemic spread to the country, rather than waiting until August in an attempt to reduce the fiscal costs of building a facility.  Doing this would have sped up the national distribution process and increased the global production levels of the COVID-19 vaccine. These increases would aid less economically developed countries in their vaccination processes, as many of these countries are having trouble vaccinating their populations due to a lack of economic resources and production infrastructure. The Trudeau government’s lack of initiative has affected not only the distribution of vaccines within Canada but also slowed global immunization against COVID-19. It is possible that the Liberal government would leverage the vaccine in exchange for money from countries with difficulty procuring a vaccine supply, but with increased availability for vaccines, the price per dose would decrease, potentially reaching price levels that are attainable for all, leaving little incentive for the Canadian government to keep producing vaccines.

Canada’s vaccine distribution policy has been abysmal throughout this pandemic. The effects of a lack of initiative by the Canadian government have created gaps in vaccine rollout throughout the country. For example, with a population of about 14.5 million, Ontario has only successfully vaccinated just under 1.1 million people, with only around 285,000 being fully vaccinated. The absence of results decreases the viability that the current vaccination timelines will be fulfilled without further spikes of the virus. To prevent further spread of the virus and ensure the vaccine’s effectiveness, Canada should establish precautions such as national two-week stay-at-home lockdowns and pandemic response systems. Some people may protest the validity of these precautions by accusing the government of controlling their lives. However, medical experts have determined that these are the most effective measures to prevent the spread of the virus if paired with individual measures as well such as hand washing and mask-wearing. Ensuring that foreign firms deliver on their vaccine delivery promises with as few delays as possible in the vaccine production facility’s construction should be Canada's top priority. Once Canada has an established and consistent distribution plan, it will finally begin returning to relative normalcy.