In December, before the COVID-19 variants changed the course of the pandemic, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bragged that he had procured enough potential vaccines to protect a population four times the size of Canada. But four months later, less than two percent of Canada’s population of just under 38 million has been fully vaccinated and large parts of the country are being shut down again thanks to a brutal third wave.
Canada has recorded nearly one million cases and 23,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic. Trudeau had hoped to get the population vaccinated by June, but now says all Canadians who want a vaccine will get one by the end of September. Canada is one of the few major economies in the world that has not attempted to produce its own coronavirus vaccine.
Meanwhile, the variants are starting to hold.
On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a stark warning that even fully vaccinated Americans should avoid travel to Canada. And if they go for essential purposes, they should be tested for three to five days after returning. “This is not the news that any of us wanted, but hospital admissions are on the rise, IC beds are getting full, variants are spreading and even people who convinced themselves not to worry are getting sick,” Trudeau said. at a press conference Tuesday. “Even when the sun is shining and the weather is getting warmer, COVID-19 isn’t done with us,” he said, calling the third wave of the pandemic “very serious.”
Even more troubling, according to Canada’s top health expert, most of the new cases seen in hospital intensive care units are increasingly younger patients. “While COVID-19 still affects people of all ages in Canada, infection rates are highest among the 20-39 age group,” Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said in a statement Wednesday. “We are also seeing an increasing number of adults under the age of 60 being treated in hospital for COVID-19, including in intensive care.”
So how can a country that has ordered more vaccines per capita than anywhere else in the world be in such a problem? Canada doesn’t manufacture vaccines on its territory – they make their own vaccines or manufacture others – and the imported doses simply haven’t been delivered. The Canadian government vaccine manufacturer was privatized in the 1980s and eventually bought by the French company Sanofi, whose own vaccination efforts have failed.
Trudeau announced last week that Pfizer will finally start delivering a million doses per week after the US clears exports, now that it is clear that there is enough supply for Americans first. AstraZeneca has also pledged to deliver 20 million of its increasingly controversial vaccine, which should also help kick-start the painfully slow rollout. Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are also approved for use in Canada, but they have yet to be supplied in a large quantity.
Trudeau has come under fire from angry Canadians after admitting early on that the country wouldn’t be first in line for vaccines because they didn’t produce locally. When the EU put pressure on vaccine exports, Canada again paid the price in missed deliveries. The Biden government has not yet committed to exports to Canada or Mexico, both of which are facing shortages.