Canada urged to avoid ‘vaccine nationalism’ in race for COVID-19 cure

 

OTTAWA -- A top American health expert is praising Canada for not succumbing to "vaccine nationalism" because of its efforts to push for fair global distribution of a cure for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thomas Bollyky, director of the global health program at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations, says that sets Canada apart from the United States and European countries that are making moves to pre-buy massive amounts of potentially viable vaccines for their own populations.

Bollyky, who also teaches law at Georgetown University, says that amounts to hoarding and would undermine efforts to neutralize COVID-19 in rich and poor countries alike.

His perspective comes as the Trudeau government faces questions from health-care experts about why it is not doing more to fund domestic vaccine research to prevent Canadians from having to wait in line, potentially for months, for a pandemic cure that might be found in another country.

One senator and some health-care professionals are asking why Ottawa is delaying a decision on the $35-million pitch by Providence Therapeutics to begin human trials of a new, experimental vaccine technology that has been heavily funded in the United States.

Providence says it would share its expertise internationally and could potentially deliver five million doses of a vaccine to Canadians by mid-2021, but it can't move forward with testing or manufacturing without funding.