Canada's slow-burn vaccine roll out puts pressure on Trudeau
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Saturday
August 20, 2022

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 2022
Canada's slow-burn vaccine roll out puts pressure on Trudeau

World+Biz

Reuters
18 February, 2021, 07:35 pm
Last modified: 18 February, 2021, 07:38 pm

Related News

  • Can Bangladesh benefit from Canada’s 10 lakh job vacancies?
  • Canadian lawmakers plan Taiwan trip amid rising China tensions
  • Power restored to downtown Toronto after outage leaves businesses in the dark
  • Tesla discloses lobbying effort to set up factory in Canada
  • Pope says genocide took place at Church schools in Canada for indigenous children

Canada's slow-burn vaccine roll out puts pressure on Trudeau

Canada now ranks about 40th in the world in per capita vaccinations, according to the University of Oxford’s Our World in Data. Liberals now lead Conservatives only by one point

Reuters
18 February, 2021, 07:35 pm
Last modified: 18 February, 2021, 07:38 pm
FILE PHOTO: Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends a news conference at Rideau Cottage, as efforts continue to help slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada June 22, 2020. REUTERS/Blair Gable/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends a news conference at Rideau Cottage, as efforts continue to help slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada June 22, 2020. REUTERS/Blair Gable/File Photo

Canada's Covid-19 vaccination campaign started on the same day in December as the United States, but it now lags dozens of countries, including its southern neighbor, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is feeling the pressure.

Canada's lack of domestic vaccine production is at the root of the problem, forcing the country to depend on foreign companies with production abroad.

In June, Trudeau's Liberals had an 11-percentage-point lead against their Conservative Party rival, according to Abacus Data. His government provided billions of dollars so people could stay home and not work during the pandemic while the virus spread rapidly in the United States.

Canada now ranks about 40th in the world in per capita vaccinations, according to the University of Oxford's Our World in Data. Liberals now lead Conservatives only by one point, Abacus says.

"We don't know if we're really going to get all the promised doses... I'll believe it when I see it," opposition Conservative leader Erin O'Toole said on Tuesday during question period in parliament.

Canada has procured more doses per capita than any country in the world, and Trudeau says everyone who wants to be inoculated will be by the end of September, but a Leger poll published this week shows most Canadians do not believe him.

Fewer than 3% of Canada's 38 million people have received the first of two shots.

The 49-year-old Trudeau's political future could be at stake since senior Liberal sources have said they are eyeing an early vote this year in a bid to free the government from its dependence on opposition parties to pass legislation.

RAMPING UP PRODUCTION

The lack of manufacturing capacity became a hot-button issue after Pfizer Inc reduced its deliveries in January and February in order to boost production capacity at its plant in Belgium. Moderna Inc cut shipments, too.

Canada is making investments in domestic production, including to produce the US-based Novavax Inc vaccine in Montreal; it's also investing in an inoculation being developed by Quebec-based Medicago. Neither is expected to be available soon.

Critics say the government moved too slow to gear up domestic production and some provincial leaders now want to place their own vaccine orders and bypass the federal government.

Canada had to create manufacturing "from a standing start that is decades and decades old," said a senior government source, who declined to be named in order to speak frankly, adding it takes time to ramp up production.

Opposition politicians also point out that Trudeau's quick embrace of newly elected US President Joe Biden has failed to secure shipments of vaccines from the United States.

Biden has not reversed an executive order signed by former US President Donald Trump that blocks vaccine exports.

"You could throw a snowball from (Pfizer's Michigan) plant and hit Canada, and yet we're not getting vaccine from the plant, we're getting it from Belgium," said Dr Isaac Bogoch, infectious diseases specialist at Toronto General Hospital.

Officials on both sides of the border have said they have discussed vaccines together, but there has been no indication that the United States is ready to share with its northern neighbor.

Trudeau's government says the delivery disruptions are over.

Both Pfizer and Moderna have boosted planned deliveries for the second quarter, when 23 million doses are expected, and 84 million are due by September. Three other vaccines await regulatory approval and could accelerate inoculations.

It is a race against time. Canada is beginning to open up as case numbers from the second wave come down. But more contagious variants could cause a third wave before most people get vaccinated, Bogoch said.

"We're walking on a bit of a knife's edge right now," he said.

Top News

Canada / Justin Trudeau

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Stories beneath the trade data
    Stories beneath the trade data
  • India also will be ashamed of FM Momen’s statement: Quader
    India also will be ashamed of FM Momen’s statement: Quader
  • Logo of BNP
    BNP slams Momen for 'asking India to keep PM Hasina's govt in power'

MOST VIEWED

  • Ukrainian service members are seen at a position near a frontline, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Zaporizhzhia Region, Ukraine August 18, 2022. REUTERS/Dmytro Smolienko
    Explosions rock Russian-held areas far from Ukraine war front
  • Supporters of the Coordination Framework, a group of Shi'ite parties, gather during a sit-in, amid a political crisis, near the Green Zone, in Baghdad, Iraq August 13, 2022. REUTERS/Alaa al-Marjani
    As Iraqi protesters rally, political deadlock leaves families without cash
  • Test tubes labelled "Monkeypox virus positive" are seen in this illustration taken May 22, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
    EU backs changing monkeypox vaccine injection method to boost supply
  • FILE PHOTO - Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with acting Governor of Kirov region Alexander Sokolov via a video link at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia August 9, 2022. Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTERS
    Putin agreed to send IAEA mission to Ukraine plant, Macron's office says
  • Semiconductor chips are seen on a circuit board of a computer in this illustration picture taken February 25, 2022. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration
    Taiwan says it has not been informed of 'Chip 4' meeting
  • Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 18, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
    Nasdaq leads Wall Street lower as rate hike worries spark tech rout

Related News

  • Can Bangladesh benefit from Canada’s 10 lakh job vacancies?
  • Canadian lawmakers plan Taiwan trip amid rising China tensions
  • Power restored to downtown Toronto after outage leaves businesses in the dark
  • Tesla discloses lobbying effort to set up factory in Canada
  • Pope says genocide took place at Church schools in Canada for indigenous children

Features

Illustration: TBS

China-Bangladesh currency clearance agreement can increase trade by 'an unimaginable scale': Li Jiming, Ambassador of China

18h | Interviews
Postcrossing (which connects people through its website) is a system built for postcard enthusiasts, where anyone can sign up and create an account for free. Photo: Noor A Alam

Postcrossers: Reviving a lost art with strangers and postcards

17h | Panorama
We will be facing massive, recurring challenges in the coming years no matter what. Photo: Reuters

Holes in the recession story

1d | Panorama
Illustration: Bloomberg

What nonmonogamy can teach moonlighters and job jugglers

1d | Pursuit

More Videos from TBS

Amazing folding smartphone

Amazing folding smartphone

9h | Videos
How Russia gets advantage for geographical location?

How Russia gets advantage for geographical location?

11h | Videos
Is textbooks enough for students?

Is textbooks enough for students?

11h | Videos
134-year-old traditional sandwich of New York

134-year-old traditional sandwich of New York

16h | Videos

Most Read

1
From left Afzal Karim, Murshedul Kabir and Mohammad Jahangir
Banking

Sonali, Agrani and Rupali banks get new MDs

2
Russia now offers Bangladesh finished oil
Energy

Russia now offers Bangladesh finished oil

3
Photo: TBS
Bangladesh

5 crushed to death as BRT girder falls on car in Uttara

4
Photo: Collected
Economy

Bangladesh is not in a crisis situation: IMF

5
Migrant workers. Photo: UNB
Migration

Can Bangladesh benefit from Canada’s 10 lakh job vacancies?

6
Eight more banks make unusual gains from forex dealings
Banking

Eight more banks make unusual gains from forex dealings

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2022
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]