A discussion of Canada’s vaccination strategy and its implications on global health. Written by members of PHM Canada for publication in The Conversation. Read the full article here.
Canada’s ‘me first’ COVID-19 vaccine strategy may come at the cost of global health
By: Ronald Labonté, Katrina Plamondon, Mira Johri, and Srinivas Murthy
When the throne speech was delivered on Sept. 23, Canada had already committed over $1 billion in advance purchase agreements with five drug companies for a minimum of 154 million vaccine doses, if and when these candidate vaccines are proven effective and safe. Two days later, Canada inked another agreement with another company for 20 million more doses, hedging its bets on which of the vaccine contenders will be the first to arrive.
In doing so, Canada joins the premier league of the vaccine nationalists, a handful of rich countries that has pre-purchased (so far) more than half the world’s expected short-term supply of vaccines.