Canadian wants no gifts, just Covid-19 vaccine for 94th birthday

TORONTO: All a Canadian woman wants for her 94th birthday is a Covid-19 vaccine, according to a handwritten sign outside her home in Toronto.

“I am 94 today! No gifts, just the vaccine please,” it reads.

Nina Rockett’s daughter Margot made and hung the banner at her mother’s house in Canada’s largest metropolis when she turned one year older on Feb 24, amid rising frustrations with the relatively slow pace of Canada’s vaccine rollout.

Canada has ordered or reserved more than 400 million doses of vaccine from seven suppliers, and started inoculating its citizens in December 2020 with the first authorised candidates made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. A third one developed by AstraZeneca was approved on Friday.

But the nation, with no vaccine production capacity of its own, hit a bump in the past month with shortages and delivery delays linked to European manufacturing issues.

So far less than 3% of Canada’s population of 38 million has received at least one shot.

“It was the night before my mother’s birthday and I realised she is turning 94 and she has no vaccine,” Margot said.

She lamented “a lot of broken promises” and a lack of firm information from doctors, public health officials and governments.

Each of Canada’s 10 provinces is responsible for administering vaccines purchased in bulk and distributed by the federal government.

“What is happening here is terrible, is shameful,” she said.

“I was fed up and I thought I just want the world to know that she is 94 and she is worthy of having the vaccine – and she wants it.

“I think everybody should hang a banner like this outside their door or window or balcony to raise awareness of the plight of the elderly in Canada over the past year,” she commented.