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Two of Canada’s closest allies have established plans to distribute new vaccines against the deadly new coronavirus, with the first shots expected to be delivered in December.
Canada, meanwhile, has remained largely silent on how promising vaccine candidates will be distributed here after Canadian health regulators gave them the green light, providing little, if any, details beyond a promise to work with. provinces and territories and purchase cold storage.
The federal government has procured approximately 358 million doses from seven companies – an insurance policy against the possibility that some of the vaccines under development will prove ineffective in clinical trials. However, little is known about how and when vaccines will be available.
“Our government has worked hard to secure tens of millions of doses, so we are prepared once a safe and effective vaccine is ready for Canadians,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today, adding that it is “premature” to say when. communities will have access to vaccines.
Trudeau said Canada – unlike the US, UK and Germany – has no domestic vaccine production capacity, meaning it may take a while for Canadians to get a dose. “We look forward to vaccinating Canadians in the coming months,” he said.
WATCH: Trudeau Says Lack of Canadian Manufacturing Capacity to Blame for Vaccine Challenges
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke to reporters outside his Ottawa home on Tuesday 1:59
Dr. Moncef Slaoui is the principal scientific advisor to Operation Warp Speed, the US mission to develop a vaccine, produce it in large quantities and disseminate it in communities. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will meet on December 10 to make a final decision on Pfizer’s highly effective vaccine, and Slaoui said vaccinations will begin immediately.
“Our plan is to be able to ship vaccines to immunization sites within 24 hours of approval,” Slaoui said in an interview with CNN.
“I would expect that perhaps the second day after approval, December 11 or December 12, hopefully the first people will be immunized in the United States, in all states, in all areas where the state departments of health they told us to provide the vaccine. “
20 million Americans to be vaccinated in December
Slaoui said up to 20 million Americans will be vaccinated in December and another 30 million Americans will be vaccinated in each subsequent month.
Since October, Pfizer has produced hundreds of thousands of doses every week, although it has not yet received regulatory approval. The company hopes to make 100 million doses available this year and another 1.3 billion in 2021. Each patient will need two doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
The National Health Service (NHS) in England has designated 1,250 local health clinics as vaccination sites where, from 1 December, staff will be available to administer the vaccine on 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. Each clinical site should inoculate at least 975 people per week.
The NHS has already started booking appointments for vaccines, designating blocks to priority groups. Vaccinations in the UK will begin with long-term care home residents and home assistants, all 80 years of age and older and health and social workers, before being offered to those aged 75 or younger.
“I have instructed the NHS to be ready by any date since Dec 1. The logistics are complex, the uncertainties are real and the scope of the work is vast, but I know the NHS, brilliantly assisted by the military, will make it up to par. of the task, ”Matt Hancock, the UK’s secretary of health, told Parliament last week.
In May, the U.S. contacted a retired four-star Army general, General Gustave Perna, to coordinate distribution efforts – a massive task that will see millions of doses of the vaccine distributed in every state starting next month. , through a partnership with the United States. drug distribution giant McKesson.
Perna is a former commanding general for the United States Army Material Command, which manages the Army’s global supply chain, making him uniquely qualified to manage such a complicated distribution network.
“The country’s current public health infrastructure is well-proven – we see evidence every fall when Americans get the flu shot in large numbers. But these aren’t normal times,” Perna said in a statement to the media. “Leveraging our military planning and logistics capabilities and combining it with proven methods will allow existing systems to scale rapidly to deliver the vaccine to the American people.”
More than 1 million standard kits – which would cover 100 million vaccine doses – have been assembled by Operation Warp Speed.
The military and McKesson will distribute vaccines along with auxiliary kits with all the supplies needed to administer them, such as needles, syringes, alcohol swabs, and limited personal protective equipment.
Pfizer has a collection center in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and the drug maker plans to use private shipping companies like UPS and FedEx to deliver vaccines to hospitals and vaccination sites within hours.
While Operation Warp Speed will provide shipments of vaccines, it will be up to states, territories and major metropolitan areas to further define where the doses ultimately go. All 50 states have submitted COVID-19 distribution plans to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
The CDC sent more than $ 300 million to states to fine-tune the distribution process, and last month, the agency publicly released a 75-page playbook describing everything from vaccine vendor recruitment and lines. guide to enrollment, vaccine storage, and tips for managing information on which groups should be first in line for a shot.
The CDC has also signed agreements with major US pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens to assist with on-site vaccinations at long-term care (LTC) facilities, which have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic.
Germany could also start administering COVID-19 vaccine injections as soon as next month, Jens Spahn, the country’s health minister, said Sunday.
Spahn said he asked Germany’s federal states to have their vaccination centers ready by mid-December. “I would prefer a ready-to-use immunization center that remains inactive for several days rather than a licensed vaccine that cannot be administered,” the minister said, adding that vulnerable people, such as the elderly, would be treated first.
Canadian officials working “around the clock”: health minister
The Canadian federal government, by comparison, has said little publicly about what it has planned for vaccine distribution.
Scientists from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recently published preliminary guidance on who should get priority for a vaccine.
Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand announced last week that the government plans to purchase more than 100 new freezers to help store COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer as well as Moderna.
When asked Tuesday why Canada appears to be further behind in the race to distribute vaccines, Health Minister Patty Hajdu said the whole process is complicated and Health Canada has not yet approved a candidate vaccine.
“I cannot speak to the regulatory processes of the allied countries. I can only speak to my own,” he said.
Hajdu said the health department is “working closely” with procurement officials to distribute a vaccine once Canada has one.
“All of our departments are working right now, actually around the clock, to make sure we have a concrete plan with the provinces and territories that we are ready to distribute the vaccines as soon as they arrive on Canadian soil,” he said.
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