Vaccine info kept from the public

On Jan. 25, documents tabled in the House of Commons from Global Affairs Canada revealed some troubling information.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced at a press conference on May 16 that his government had made a deal with China based CanSino Biologics related to developing a COVID vaccine.

The documents produced this week reveal that just three days later, on May 19, the Trudeau government was advised by Global Affairs Canada that “a shipment of Ad5-nCoV vaccine candidate seeds destined for Canada was being held by the General Administration of Customs of China at Beijing Capital International Airport.”

In other words, the Chinese government was refusing to issue the required approval allowing the export of this vaccine to Canada, effectively blocking the shipment.

While this information was known to the prime minister and his cabinet, it was hidden from Canadians and not publicly disclosed until July 6, 48 days later.

Trudeau did almost daily news conferences throughout June from Rideau Cottage (while the House of Commons was not in session) and not once did he disclose this information to Canadians.

Despite knowing the China based CanSino vaccine virus was blocked on May 19, it would not be until the beginning of August that Procurement Minister Anita Anand finally announced a deal with Pfizer for vaccine supply.

By this point, countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan had already made agreements with Pfizer for the COVID vaccine.

Why does this matter?

Because this week Canada will receive no Pfizer vaccine at all and over the next four weeks, Canada’s Pfizer vaccine deliveries will be cut in half with up to 400,000 doses delayed.

Here in British Columbia, currently 85% of all received vaccine has now been administered.

As a result of the lack of supply, B.C. must delay the required second dose to 42 days after the first dose. Pfizer indicates the required second dose is to be administered 21 days after the first dose.

In short, B.C., much like the rest of Canada is now falling behind other countries. In fact at the time of writing, in terms of total number of vaccination doses administered, Canada ranked 13th behind India, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, Italy and others.

For added context, Washington state (population 7.6 million) has administered 500,000 doses of vaccine and it currently stepping up vaccination rates. By comparison B.C. (population 5.07 million) had administered 122,359 doses.

Unfortunately, with B.C. almost running out of current vaccine supply and with future supply shortages unique to Canada, this problem will only get worse.

Other countries with agreements with Pfizer have not been anywhere near as adversely impacted by this current supply shortage, as compared to Canada.

The federal government continues to maintain that Canada has the “most diverse portfolio of any country for vaccines” and that delivery will be on schedule.