Trudeau defends government’s ability to secure vaccines amid persistent delivery delays
Posted January 19, 2021 2:31 pm.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending his government’s ability to acquire COVID-19 vaccines as more provinces revise their vaccination schedules due to a temporary slowdown in production of the drug by Pfizer and BioNTech.
Late last week, the federal government announced that Pfizer’s plan to ramp up production at a plant in Belgium will cause delays in vaccine shipments.
Trudeau says all countries are feeling the heat over the speed of vaccine deliveries as a result of the Pfizer slowdown.
“I had a lovely conversation with Angela Merkle yesterday morning in which she complained to me that every day she gets it from the German media that they’re not doing as well as Canada is,” Trudeau said.
“I think a lot of people are comparing stories from country to country and trying to figure out how we can all move quicker.”
On Tuesday it was confirmed that Canada will not receive any new shipments of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines next week, leading Ontario Premier Doug Ford to vehemently slam the process.
Only 171,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will arrive over the next two weeks, instead of the nearly 418,000 previously expected.
Trudeau has persisted that most Canadians will be inoculated by September, a forecast supported by deputy chief public health officer Dr. Howard Njoo, who says the Prime Minister’s prediction is “in the same ballpark” as previous rollout plans.
RELATED: Ontario, other provinces delaying or revisiting vaccine programs as Pfizer slows dose deliveries
Procurement Minister Anita Anand says she has spoken to Pfizer and does not expect any more interruptions to its Canadian deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines after mid-February.
But Chief Public Health Officer Doctor Theresa Tam says provinces need to be prepared just in case there are future delays in receiving vaccines.
“I think one does have to prepare for uncertainties in the days ahead as we’ve just seen,” Tam admitted.
“It is up to the provinces and territories to plan for that.”
Anand says she understands the delay in shipment of the Pfizer vaccine is very disappointing but says health officials are continuing to receive steady numbers of the Moderna vaccine.
“By the end of March, we too, as a country, will remain on track,” Anand said. “We expect to have six million doses of Moderna and Pfizer in Canada and 80 million doses by the end of the year, the vast majority will be delivered by the end of September.”
Both Moderna and Pfizer vaccines take two doses to be effective.
Anand says the federal government has agreements in place for five additional vaccine candidates, which will be brought to Canada once they receive regulatory approval.
With files from The Canadian Press
