Canadian just wants vaccine for birthday

Toronto, Canada (AFP) — 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 24 February, amid mounting frustrations with the relatively slow pace of Canada’s vaccine rollout.

It was the night before my mother’s birthday and I realized she is turning 94 and she has no vaccine.

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 authorized 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 three percent of Canada’s population of 38 million had received at least one shot.

“It was the night before my mother’s birthday and I realized she is turning 94 and she has no vaccine,” Margot said in an interview with AFP.

She lamented that “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.