Winnipeg Free Press By: Joel Lexchin
Canada’s slow vaccine rollout is the product of decades of inaction and questionable decisions.
As of Feb. 5, Canada had administered 2.7 COVID-19 vaccination doses per 100 people compared to 61.7 for Israel and 16.2 for the United Kingdom. By contrast, Canada has signed contracts with seven different companies for a total of 234 million doses with options for tens of millions more.
Opinion
What’s going on?
To understand the problem, we need to go back to the 1980s. At that time, the government-owned Connaught Labs was producing vaccines here in Canada and decision-making was in the public realm. But Connaught was partially privatized and then finally allowed to be sold to the French company Merieux (now part of Sanofi) by the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney.
Disclosure statement
In 2017-2020, Joel Lexchin received payments for being on a panel at the American Diabetes Association, for talks at the Toronto Reference Library, for writing a brief in an action for side effects of a drug for Michael F. Smith, Lawyer and a second brief on the role of promotion in generating prescriptions for Goodmans LLP and from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for presenting at a workshop on conflict-of-interest in clinical practice guidelines. He is currently a member of research groups that are receiving money from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. He is a member of the Foundation Board of Health Action International and the Board of Canadian Doctors for Medicare. He receives royalties from University of Toronto Press and James Lorimer & Co. Ltd. for books he has written.
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Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
As health care workers across Canada prepare to receive a COVID-19 vaccine this week, one group is almost certain to be missing: pregnant women.
The expert panel that advises Canadians on immunization published a position statement Monday that says the recently authorized shot should not be offered to people who are pregnant or breastfeeding until more evidence is available – although the statement also says the final decision should rest with women.
The question of whether to immunize expectant mothers is especially urgent during this pandemic because the evidence so far suggests that the coronavirus is harder on pregnant women, sending more of them to hospitals and intensive-care units than women who are not pregnant.