Too Early For Talk About Canada’s ‘Hypothetical Surplus’ Of Vaccines: Minister
OTTAWA — Canada has secured a portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines candidates with enough doses to vaccinate its population of 38 million four times over but the federal minister involved in ensuring equitable global access says its premature to talk about redistributing what is left over.
The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine is the only one that has been approved by Health Canada so far. Canada has signed deals with six other vaccine candidates that could result in a domestic supply of up to 429 million doses.
“We’re not there yet,” International Development Minister Karina Gould told HuffPost Canada in an interview, adding that any talk about a glut in vaccine supply is a discussion about a “hypothetical surplus” at this point.
“We don’t actually have a surplus of physical vaccines,” Gould said. “We don’t have a closet where we’re hiding vaccines right now.”
Watch: Canada boosts COVID-19 foreign aid by $485M. Story continues below video.
The first doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine started last week with front-line health care workers and long-term care home residents being among the first to receive their doses — a glimmer of hope that a immunization campaign for the general population is on its way.
COVID-19 has been linked to at least 14,040 deaths as of Saturday, the same day Canada surpassed 500,000 total reported cases, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
There are at least 75,695 active cases across the country — a number that will continue to rise with the daily case counts in Ontario and Quebec regularly breaking new records.
With so much focus on vaccines and their distribution, some non-governmental organizations have raised their concerns about equity and access after observing a handful of rich countries corner the market for the global supply of COVID-19 vaccine candidates.
“Updated data shows that rich nations representing just 14 per cent of the world’s population have bought up 53 per cent of all the...