Canada's vaccine policy is complicit in each new COVID variant

Written by: Scott Martin

COVID-19 case numbers across Canada have received a huge spike from the spread of the Omicron variant. Canada claims to be a champion in the furthering of vaccine donations globally, and prides itself on its 87.57 per cent vaccination rate for Canadians 12 and older.. However the reality shows that Canada’s policies towards vaccines internationally are a large factor fueling these new variants, which prolongs the pandemic and fails us all.

Back in May 2021, over a dozen experts in the fields of infectious disease and vaccine developments stated that a first round of global vaccinations would provide the most protection from COVID-19. They argued that this would offer more protection than booster shots, which were being discussed at the time. With the new variant wreaking havoc during the past weeks, this discussion was swept aside to focus on more booster shots for Canadians.

This isn’t to say Canadians should refuse booster shots. Canadians should protect themselves against Omicron using the best tools provided for them. However, both the federal and provincial governments are individualizing these choices, and in some parts of the country, complicating the process to even test oneself for the disease. While people in Ontario line-up for rapid tests at an LCBO that doesn’t even have them, only for them to arrive and run out less than a day later, the federal government has abandoned any pretense of protecting the global population from new variants. Canada has failed to protect the world, and by extension Canadians, from new and dangerous variants.

Canada pursues a dangerous global vaccine policy

Taking the earliest opportunity to seize vaccines for itself, Canada took from the COVAX fund meant for countries in need and then declared that it wouldn’t donate any for COVAX until every last Canadian was inoculated. Since then, their position changed with an announcement of a $15 million donation to help make mRNA vaccines in African countries, and donating nearly two million doses to Uganda, further promising to deliver 200 million by the end of 2022.

While impressive at face value, this commitment falls apart under further scrutiny. Canada’s donation is part of a larger commitment by G7 countries to donate one billion doses, 879 million of which over the next year. However, experts have said this commitment is not nearly enough of what’s needed to reach the 70 per cent threshold recommended by the WHO. The actual doses estimated to reach this are around 12 billion. The G7 countries have committed to less than ten per cent of the doses actually needed for that threshold.

This commitment also aims to be completed before the end of 2022, almost three years into the COVID-19 pandemic. Right now, almost two years into the pandemic, only 8.9 per cent of people in low-income countries have received their first dose. This has allowed the virus to spread and mutate into the current variants without any systemic support for the most exploited populations in the world. It’s been known for months the data suggests administering first-doses globally is a far better policy to end the pandemic than to add boosters to fully inoculated people.

The WHO’s call for a 70 per cent threshold by the end of 2022 was coupled with a call for 40% of every country to be vaccinated by the end of 2021. The current numbers and developments show that low-income countries are nowhere close to that number. Only 9 per cent of people in African countries have been fully vaccinated. Canada’s global approach to vaccines is a reason why.

There’s also the issue of creation and distribution of these vaccines in the global south. While there are candidates for countries that can manufacture mRNA vaccines, the vast amount of them do not have the capabilities to source and create these doses. Efforts should be made to fund and support new infrastructure and supply chains that allow these countries to create their own vaccines, at the request of the citizens, instead of the rampant financial imperialism that wracks these countries today. Rather than be sentenced to helplessly wait by the sidelines as Canada hoards far more doses than necessary for its own population, these countries need actual beneficial policies.

The issue at the core of this behaviour is neo-colonialism. The tools and infrastructure necessary for countries like Uganda to create their own vaccine doses aren’t available because of countries like Canada’s exploitative policies towards these nations. Small development assistance has been provided by other countries, such as South Africa receiving grants from Britain. Canada has spent its political will and energy on the African continent by solidifying economic interests. While the world suffers from new COVID-19 variants, preventable deaths and pandemic strain, Canada has focused its international policy on its own economic interests, while at the same time pretending its meagre vaccine donations show the real heart of Canadian selflessness.

China and Cuba show the way in global vaccinations

We can contrast Canada’s behavior and attitude towards global vaccines and their handling of the pandemic by drawing a direct comparison to other countries such as China and Cuba. China has put Canada and the G7 countries’ commitment to shame by committing to handing out 1 billion doses towards African nations. 600 million doses set to be donated, and the other 400 million being made in coordination with Chinese companies and countries in the continent. As of writing, China has delivered 1.34 billion doses of their vaccines to many nations around the world. Canada, on the other hand, did not recognize the Chinese vaccines Sinopharm or Sinovac until November 30, 2021.

Meanwhile, Cuba has announced plans to contribute doses of its vaccines to Venezuela, Vietnam, Iran, and Nicaragua. 900,000 of these doses have been bought by Vietnam with an additional 150,000 donated. While Cuba awaits approval for their Abdala vaccine from the WHO to spread and inoculate other globally poor countries, Mexico has approved it for emergency use. Cuba also teamed up with Mexico to get an open license for their domestically developed vaccines. At the Summit for Vaccine Internationalism in July, mostly Latin American countries championed a more egalitarian approach, with Venezuela proposing a tech-sharing platform to assist with the WHO’s COVID-19 technology access pool.

Canada’s donation may seem superior compared to Cuba’s donation, but their efforts must be put in perspective. Cuba, a country that has been under a trade embargo for the past 60 years, enforced by the USA, has created and distributed its own vaccines internally at an astonishing 128.9 per cent vaccination rate at time of writing. They then took part in a summit committed to open sourcing their vaccines and contributed over a million doses to another country in need.

Meanwhile, after taking 1.9 million doses from COVAX that could have supported developing countries, Canada waited nearly 11 months to donate a near-equivalent two million vaccines to one country, while our vaccine reserves have continually left between 6.5 and 12 million unused doses in storage. These numbers are far above the stated 4 million that the COVID vaccine reserves’ stated goal. Not only does Canada have far more vaccines than it needs, but at least one million that could have been used in global south countries have been needlessly wasted. It was also reported that Canada’s actual donations have only been a quarter of what was promised, with no indication of when they’ll catch up on the promised donations.

With regards to ensuring a global production of vaccines, Canada has avoided committing support to waiving either the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine patents. By refusing to even commit to an answer on the question of waiving patents, Trudeau and the Canadian government hopes to wash their hands of any decisions or responsibility.

Internal vaccine attitudes reflective of international politics

In the face of staggering case numbers across the nation, Trudeau has committed to one message: get the booster shot. “We’ll get to better days” if every Canadian gets their booster shot. Trudeau thinks Canadians should get vaccinated after enjoying their favourite Christmas movie Die Hard. Never mind that it’s entirely possible Omicron could have been prevented if the people of other countries had access to the shots that were taken by Canada, it’s individual Canadians who need to do their part to end the pandemic.

This neoliberal individualizing international approach to vaccines has now become the focus of internal politics. The Quebec College of Physicians has supported stronger measures against the unvaccinated to combat Omicron, while the Toronto Star has stated of the unvaccinated that “It is their irresponsibility that is largely to blame for the restraints under which Canadians are currently required to live.” It was also announced that unvaccinated Quebecers will be subject to a tax under the Legault government. At time of writing, only 15 per cent of people in Quebec have yet to receive one dose. This blatant scapegoating blames unvaccinated people for policy failures by provincial and federal governments.

Measures to raise vaccination rates should be taken, but we must remember that not all of the unvaccinated are rampant anti-vaxxers. That justified distrust of institutions, as well as inaccessibility and complicated booking processes for Canadians who do not speak English or French as their first language, must be addressed to raise the rates. Beyond that, shifting blame for Omicron and the measures needed to combat it against an approximate 13 per cent of the population hides the failures of the Canadian government to properly tackle the pandemic.

Changing the approach

As of right now, studies suggest that vaccines used in most of the world will provide little to no protection against infection from the Omicron variant. Canada’s hoarding of vaccines, while refusing to commit to widespread protection, is tantamount to murder. Calls to try Canada and other countries in international court have been made, but it’s a near certainty this will not happen. A WTO meeting to waive patents was planned for the end of November 2021, which would have certainly helped combat new variants, but it was postponed because of Omicron.

It should also be made clear that Omicron will not be the last variant. Where the virus will evolve from here is a matter of debate. Yet, the devastation from the global north’s attitude towards international vaccinations is not in doubt. By committing to a radically different global vaccination policy, Canada could help to save untold lives, protect the most exploited and further progress the unity that they claim was needed to get through this.

Multiple Canadian organizations and experts have called for Canada to support waiving the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) for vaccines so they can be widely distributed. The US may pay lip-service to this action without any further efforts to pursue it, but Canada has refused to even do that. Until Canada commits to TRIPS with over 100 countries and helps to force the WTO’s hand, the pandemic situation will continue its devastation.

Canada’s policies undeniably contribute to the new variants and their spread. Unless Canada commits to lifting patents, systematizing vaccine production and donating our surplus of vaccines going unused in storage, it will be directly responsible for every death and disastrous effect from Omicron and the variants to come after.

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Scott Martin is an activist, X University Journalism student and writer with works published in the Kingstonist and The Beaverton. He runs the YouTube channel Pinko Punko and is a founding member of the Communist Party of Canada's Tim Buck Club in Kingston, Ontario.

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