Hillier frustrated by wavering supply

Province’s vaccine co-ordinator tells public health units to be ready

OTTAWA—Ontario’s vaccination boss has instructed all 34 public health units in the province to be ready to gear up to deliver 10,000 vaccine doses a day, with big centres like Toronto expected to hit 100,000 a day.

“And we could go well above that,” said Rick Hillier, the retired army general heading up the logistics of the vaccination operation, in an interview with the Star.

But that all depends on having vaccines to inject into arms.

With production capacity problems bedevilling PfizerBioNTech and Moderna, the only two vaccine makers to have Health Canada’s authorization to distribute in Canada, Hillier said he is frustrated by the fluctuating supply.

Asked if he is worried Ontario will be overwhelmed if the companies suddenly deliver large quantities all at once, Hillier said he thinks the province will be able to handle it.

Hillier said he has told public health officials to keep their rollout machines standing by, but he acknowledged it could take up to four days to fully ramp up once the province knows how much vaccine it will receive.

Dr. Barry Pakes, program director of the University of Toronto’s public health residency program, told the Star that Hillier’s goal of 100,000 doses per day in major centres “seems difficult to achieve at first blush,” but that he thinks it is possible with proper preparation.

“It’s a laudable goal, and I think it’s not unreasonable,” Pakes said, describing how it will take planning to line up spaces for vaccinations, and to co-ordinate independent health teams across the region.

Pakes added that, in order to ramp up capacity to give shots, the current supply will obviously need to increase.

The federal government insists that increase is coming, after weeks of reduced shipments from suppliers of the two vaccines currently approved in Canada.

Pfizer-BioNTech curtailed its shipments to Canada two weeks ago when it moved to double the capacity of its Belgium production facility, from which it ships Canada’s contracted allotment. Its Kalamazoo, Mich., facility is supplying the United States with vaccines.

Moderna, a smaller U.S.-based company, has also run into capacity problems.

Hillier said that Ontario’s “confidence in Pfizer has been shattered,” and that the company must “build up our confidence again” with regular vaccine deliveries.

Hillier’s federal counterpart, Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, and Procurement Minister Anita Anand told a parliamentary committee on Friday that they do not know what the problems are in the Moderna supply chain. The Star reported Monday that delays were linked to issues with the company’s European supply chain.

However, Anand said last week she remains confident Canada’s suppliers will meet their commitments for the end of the first quarter of 2021 — specifically, that Pfizer-BioNTech will supply Canada with its contracted delivery of four million doses and Moderna will meet its commitment of two million doses.

Canada received 180,000 Moderna doses last week, down from an expected 230,000.

Anand said the federal government has delivered more than one million doses to the provinces so far, and that both companies have assured her the delays are temporary, not reductions in overall supply.

She also disputed reports by news outlets like the Economist and Bloomberg, and the “messaging from the opposition,” which suggested Canada will not meet its target of vaccinating all Canadians who want to be by the end of September, saying that speculation was “false.”

Meanwhile Ontario is using the vaccine supplies it has to provide second doses to residents of long-term-care and health workers, and trying to administer more vaccinations in northern Ontario Indigenous communities, said Hillier.

Ontario has extended the gap between first and second doses by one to two weeks, up to 35 days, below Health Canada’s recommended maximum 42day spread, Hillier said. “We know there are huge challenges,” he said.