Reasons for optimism on Canada’s vaccine rollout

Over the past few weeks, our newsfeeds have been filled with commentary about the relatively slow progression of the vaccine rollout in Canada. This commentary carries a number of criticisms, including condemnation of the negotiation blunders surrounding vaccine shipments, as well as Canada’s lack of capacity to manufacture vaccines domestically, ominous predictions of what this means for Canada’s economic status, and denunciation of Canada’s use of the COVAX program to procure additional vaccines at the expense of lower-income countries.

These articles provide important practical and moral critiques of the vaccine procurement and implementation process that can (and should) be utilized to improve Canada’s vaccination strategy, both for this pandemic and in the future. Yet, many of these articles are riddled with undertones of blame, helplessness and despair. Rhetoric such as “we should be outraged” (about the effect of delays on the economy), “chaos now reigns” (with respect to vaccination tracking), and “no end in sight” (for lockdowns) abound.

In a time when Ontarians have just reached the other side of a 46-day province-wide, mid-winter lockdown and mental health is in steady decline, I wonder whether this demoralizing approach to evaluation and reporting is really the best way forward; in fact, it may only serve to increase Canadians’ feelings of hopelessness in a time where hope already seems in dangerously short supply.

Amid the discussion surrounding the vaccine rollout, we seem to have skipped over the fact that to be disappointed about the weekly delays in the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines is something to be thankful about in itself. That is to say, the fact that we can even expect the delivery of a high-efficacy vaccine, let alone several, is a miraculous feat.

Prior to this pandemic, most vaccines were developed over a period of ten years or longer. A low-efficacy vaccine for malaria was developed over the course of 35 years, and decades of research on a vaccine for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has remained relatively unfruitful. In contrast, some of the vaccines that have been developed for COVID-19 are reported to have 95 per cent efficacy in reducing mild and severe COVID-19 symptoms, in part due to relatively recent technological advancements in mRNA vaccine platforms.

Several of the vaccines have also shown relatively high efficacy against the variants of the virus. Moreover, initial data suggests that most Canadians are receptive to getting the vaccine, meaning that achievement of herd immunity is within reach. Though some express concerns about the rate at which the vaccines were developed in relation to other vaccines, we can rest assured that the COVID-19 vaccines approved by Health Canada have been thoroughly evaluated using rigorous scientific standards. The fact that all of this good news has converged in just over a year since the virus was first detected is nothing short of a miracle.

These comments are by no means intended to minimize the intense suffering experienced by millions of Canadians throughout the course of this pandemic. Nor are they intended to suggest that we should be complacent about the slower-than-expected vaccine rollout and resist from critiquing the process. The lives and livelihoods of many Canadians are on the line, and this should be taken extremely seriously.

For many, this has been the most difficult year of their lives, and the pain from job losses, relationship issues, severely limited socialization and the suffering and death of loved ones makes it very difficult to see the glass half full. Yet by focusing solely on the disappointments of the vaccine rollout so far, we are robbing ourselves of the feelings of hope and gratitude we can experience in the midst of a historical scientific achievement that will ultimately return to us many of the things that bring us great joy. We are also robbing ourselves of the ability to focus on what needs to change, rather than what has gone wrong and who we can blame.

In the midst of this very trying time, we can seek strength and guidance in the closing lines of “The Hill We Climb,” Amanda Gorman’s momentous inauguration poem: “For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it.”

NATHAN DENETTE THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO Toronto nurse Sasha Vartley, left, vaccinates nurse Limin Liu. Writer Raquel Burgess suggests we take hope in lines from the poem read at the U.S. presidential inauguration: “For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it.”