Trudeau dropped ball with vaccine plan

[Gaon]

Canada has so much natural wealth, but this country doesn't want to use it to improve living standards. If Netanyahu was prime minister of Canada, this country would be the world's biggest oil and gas exporter.

[cc]

Yes, it would be

[Anonymous]

Canada has so much natural wealth, but this country doesn't want to use it to improve living standards. If Netanyahu was prime minister of Canada, this country would be the world's biggest oil and gas exporter.

Netanyahu puts the welfare of his country ahead of getting pats on the back from the UN.

[cc]

True, he's not into UN back pats  ac_smile



And like no other, puts his people first

[Anonymous]

By former Liberal strategist Warren Kinsella



Trudeau dropped ball on obtaining vaccine



So, who's got the vaccine? Who's done a good job, and who hasn't?



Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said we don't have a vaccine, presently, because Canada doesn't have "any domestic production capacity for vaccines." That's a quote. That's also false.



For years, Sanofi Pasteur has operated a big vaccine manufacturing facility based in Toronto called the Connaught Campus.



And Glaxo-Smith Kline has long done plenty of vaccine production in both Quebec City and Laval, Que.



All of these operations supply vaccines for global clinical trials, or commercial sales, in Canada and around the world.



Trudeau fibbed. So what, some might say. Politicians generally — and Trudeau specifically — tell whoppers when they're in trouble. Does it matter?



It does, it does. Canada's federal government dropped the ball on obtaining a coronavirus vaccine.



Trudeau's main excuse for that has been that we don't make vaccines here, and countries that do will get them first.



He's also played hide-andseek on the vaccines file. Around the world, countries — even repressive regimes — have reported to their citizens about their efforts to acquire and deliver vaccines.



In Canada, for much of the fall, Trudeau's government simply said little to nothing about its own efforts. It went dark.



So, how do we compare to the rest of the world, then? How do we stack up?



Here's a quick summary:



UNITED STATES



The Americans are going to start vaccinating this month.



Under Operation Warp Speed, the U.S. has acquired hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson, Moderna and others.



First to receive the potentially life-saving shot will be 21 million health-care workers, plus 3 million Americans in long-term care.



The chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, says 80% of the population of the U.S. will be vaccinated by May — some 265 million people.



GREAT BRITAIN



The Brits are also commencing vaccinations this month, at more than a thousand National Health Service locations, operating seven days a week.



They've contracted with many of the same firms the U.S. has, and they received their first shipment from the Pfizer plant in Belgium just last week.



Like the U.S., too, Britain is vaccinating frontline workers, folks in long-term care, and those most at risk.



They expect to have delivered close to a million vaccine doses before Christmas.



GERMANY



Like the U.S. and the U.K., the German government is also kick-starting a massive and integrated vaccination effort this month.



Its initial focus, as in other countries, is older people, those with pre-existing conditions, health-care workers, police officers, firefighters and teachers.



Mass vaccination centres have been built across Germany, and Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the pandemic will be defeated in 2021 when 70% of the German population — some 60 million people — is immune.



ITALY



As elsewhere, the Italians will be vaccinating the elderly and the healthcare front lines first.



They'll be doing so at walk-in centres across Italy, where the pandemic struck with a lethal ferocity in the spring.



And they've obtained more than a billion doses of vaccine from the biggest producers.



Italy's vaccination campaign will start in January, and the country's special pandemic commissioner says most Italians will be vaccinated by June or earlier.



Around the globe, our allies seem to be far ahead of us in their efforts to end the pandemic.



They contracted with the same companies we did — but they did so faster, and they were better organized, too.



The U.S., Great Britain, Germany: vaccinating this month.



Canada? A leak out of Ottawa this week suggested we will need to wait for "the spring thaw" — many months from now.



Trudeau insists none of that is his fault. And a poll this week suggests he's still popular.



But as the pandemic grinds on in Canada — and as our allies are increasingly freed from the shackles of the coronavirus — Trudeau will undoubtedly be wishing he got the vaccine a lot sooner.



And all of us will be wishing he'd done a better job.

[Anonymous]

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[Gaon]

The prime minister, Justin Trudeau said there would be 249,000 vaccine doses in Canada before the end of the year. That is only enough for 124,500 people.

[Anonymous]

The prime minister, Justin Trudeau said there would be 249,000 vaccine doses in Canada before the end of the year. That is only enough for 124,500 people.

Don't even count on that little taste.