ANAND CONFIDENT DOSES WILL ARRIVE.
Biden will not prevent delivery April-september
OTTAWA • Despite the U.S. government's insistence vaccines made in America should go into American arms first, Procurement Minister Anita Anand says she is confident Canada will receive 20 million doses of the newly approved Astrazeneca vaccine from U.S. plants.
Anand said she has received assurances from Astrazeneca that Canada's order will be delivered between April and September and that the Biden administration's stance will not interfere with shipments.
“(Astrazeneca) has not seen any problems with the export doses to Canada. In addition, we've spoken with our embassy to ensure that those doses will be leaving the United States and we have no reason to doubt that they will be coming into this country.” she said.
Getting to Canada might only be the first hurdle. Complicating the issue further are the vaccine's shorter expiry period and conflicting expert advice on just who should get the shot.
Anand said she does not yet have a specific delivery timeline and also did not mention any specific promises from the U.S. administration to allow the shipments.
U.S. President Joe Biden's press secretary, Jen Psaki, was asked Monday if the U.S. administration would be open to sharing vaccines with Mexico and she insisted they are focused on vaccines within their borders.
“The president has made clear that he is focused on ensuring that vaccines are available to every American. That is our focus,” she said.
Doses of the Pfizer vaccine are made just across the U.S. border, in Michigan, but Canada receives its Pfizer shipments from Belgium because the U.S. signed an agreement ensuring doses from the U.S. plant go to Americans first.
Anand said Canada has dealt with American export issues before and ultimately prevailed, citing the reversal of the Trump administration's decision last year to prevent the export of 3M N95 masks.
“We are ensuring that they will be delivered here across the border just like we did with the N95 back in the spring.”
In addition to the American doses, Canada will receive two million doses of Astrazeneca produced in India, with 500,000 arriving as early as Wednesday.
The new doses have a shorter than normal shelf life, with 300,000 of them expiring within 30 days and the remainder of the two million doses likely to expire within 60 days of delivery.
Moreover, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommended Monday the vaccine not be used for people over the age of 65 because of a limited amount of clinical trial evidence of its effectiveness in that age group.
The recommendation is at odds with the official regulatory approval from Health Canada, which authorized the vaccine in all age groups.
Four provinces — Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Prince Edward Island — have already said they would not administer Astrazeneca to anyone over age 65.
Faced with the expiration issue, provincial governments will need to move quickly to decide who will receive these vaccines, but Anand said she is confident they are up to the challenge.
“It is important to recognize that we have high demand for vaccines in this country,” she said. “We have provinces and territories that have repeatedly told the federal government that they want vaccines as soon as possible, and they're ready to administer vaccines as soon as possible.”
Conservative Health Critic Michelle Rempel Garner called for an emergency health committee meeting to sort out the issue. She said Canadians deserve to understand the seemingly contradictory decisions.
“Conflicting advice from NACI and Health Canada on whether or not the Astrazeneca vaccine is sufficiently effective in this population must be clarified before the vaccine is delivered to the provinces and Canadians deserve to understand the impacts of this decision,” said Rempel Garner in a statement.
Some countries in Europe have made similar recommendations to focus the Astrazeneca vaccine on younger people, but the U.K. has given the shot to everyone. France after initially giving it only to those under 65 reversed course Monday and will now give it to all age groups.
Health Canada's chief medical adviser, Dr. Supriya Sharma, said on Friday when announcing the vaccine's approval that they had limited clinical trial data, but they also had real-world experience from millions of people who have now received the vaccine.
“There is evidence to show that in the older age group, it would be effective, especially at preventing severe disease and hospitalizations.”