Canada will be six months behind other countries on vaccine access: Forecast

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Are you willing to wait a long while for that COVID-19  vaccine shot?

It seems like a majority of Canadians will have to wait six months longer than their American and European counterparts to get the coveted COVID-19 vaccine, according to a forecast by the UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit.

According to the EIU report — which was released Wednesday — it may take much longer to protect the world against COVID-19, with many middle-income countries not expected to receive vaccinations until 2023 with lower-income countries expected to wait until 2024.

The report — entitled “More than 85 poor countries will not have widespread access to coronavirus vaccines before 2023” — predicted Canada will have its most vulnerable populations vaccinated by the end of March. But in terms of our country’s general population, they won’t get the vaccine until mid-2022.

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The EIU’s prediction means Canada will be six months behind the United States and European Union, which are expected to have mass immunization programs to be completed by the end of 2021, while other developed countries such as Japan and Australia will be done by mid-2022 as well.

The report noted about 6.4 billion COVID-19 vaccines have been pre-ordered by wealthy countries, which is the main reason for slower roll-out to lower-income countries.

Of the wealthy countries that pre-ordered the vaccines, Canada is in the front of the pack having pre-paid for enough vaccine to immunize the country’s population multiple times over.

The EIU report comes as shipments of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine were delayed this month thanks to production slowdowns at the company’s plant in Belgium. The plant is currently expanding to handle the production of two billion vaccines does this year, according to Huffington Post.

Things between Canada and the EU became complicated recently after Germany asked the European Commission to block the export of vaccines produced in the continent. The ruling would mean drugmakers such as Pfizer would need rubber-stamping from government before the vaccines can be shipped out of Europe.

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On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the European rule to block vaccine export is concerning, but noted he’s confident Canada will get its contracted doses.

While the Pfizer vaccines have been delayed, Trudeau said shipment of the Moderna vaccine remains on schedule. Moderna’s product — which is made in Switzerland — would not be subjected to the EU export ban, said the PM.