There is a lot of chatter on social media about the eventual Canadian delivery schedule for a vaccine against the COVID-19 virus. Many people say that Prime Minister Trudeau and Health Minister Hajdu have “screwed the pooch,” as they say, and that Canadians will be behind e.g. Indonesians and Mexicans in the global lineup for the vaccine.
For a change I am NOT going to blame Prime Minister Trudeau for much of anything. Canada has a lot of orders for several different vaccine candidates. Some will be delivered early, some later. Some will require complex handling and distribution techniques, other will be easier to manage. Some will work well; others less so.
I am about 99.99% confident that the bureaucrats in Health Canada have plans for both the acquisition of (a) vaccine(s) and distribution to the provinces, and I am equally sure that their fellow bureaucrats in Alberta, Ontario, Québec and Newfoundland and Labrador have their own plans for local distribution, too. I have faith in the knowledge, skill and ability of most of those bureaucrats. (I have NO faith in the knowledge, skill and ability of M. Trudeau and Ms Hajdu, see, e.g. rapid testing and testing at airports, but that’s another issue.)
What matters is that most Canadians get an effective vaccine, hopefully injected by their neighbourhood pharmacist or at clinics (including mobile ones when that’s the best way) in their communities during the 1st and 2nd quarters of 2021, i.e. most Canadians should have been “jabbed” before the next Canada Day.
This is going to require a lot of bureaucratic and logistical effort. I see that Ontario, for example, has engaged retired General Rick Hiller to lead the effort here. That’s probably a good idea. People like General Hillier are good at getting big, complex tasks done quickly and efficiently, under intense pressure. I trust that the federal and every provincial government have a good solid leader/manager in charge of getting the job done. Politics don’t matter. It doesn’t matter if Canada is first in line or somewhere behind the leaders as long as our governments, working together, get the job done, for Canadians in a reasonable time frame ~ I think demanding that our governments “get ‘er done” by Canada Day 2021 is a good objective. The CBC tells us that Canada’s Deputy Chief Public Health Officer says that three million Canadians will be vaccinated in “early 2021.” Good; that just leaves 34 million to go before Canada’s 154th birthday.
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