VACCINES: A SELFISH PERSPECTIVE

By SHAGORIKA EASWAR

Do you sometimes get the feeling that we live in two parallel universes at the same time? In one, all is good and noble while in the other, nothing much makes sense.

At the last G20 summit in Indonesia, prime minister Justin Trudeau pledged $750 million to help developing nations. The funding, according to media reports, is to be used to finance infrastructure projects and help build schools and hospitals.

He also announced $80 million towards preventing pandemics through a World Bank project that will help developing countries manufacture COVID vaccines.

Announcements like these give me the warm fuzzies. Canada the good, doing the right thing.

But does it, always?

A Postmedia article by Ryan Tumilty presents a different picture. It describes a country where millions of expired vaccines were thrown away due to lack of demand.

“The National Post reported in June (2022) that the government had thrown away 1.2 million doses of Moderna’s shots that had expired, along with 13.6 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine. The number of expired Moderna shots has now risen to 7.7 million and the government has also now disposed of 3.1 million doses of the Novavax vaccine. About 7,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been thrown away.”

This mind-boggling number doesn’t include vaccines that may have expired and were discarded after they were sent to provincial governments.

The article details the names and numbers of vaccines that were ordered, but to summarise, Canada had ordered millions of doses – enough to cover every Canadian several times over. For free.

Which I remain utterly and forever grateful for, having heard of the free-for-all (and not in the good sense) that ensued in other parts of the world as people hunted for vaccines. Where they were available only to the rich and privileged. Where, if reports are to be believed, some of these rich and privileged took off in private jets for their shots in another country.

But to destroy vaccines? Isn’t that unforgivable?

Anna Maddison, a spokesperson for Health Canada, is quoted in the article as saying that their “approach ensures that we have enough vaccine supply for people in Canada to stay up-to-date on their vaccines, including boosters... to ensure that surplus Canadian doses are made available for donation with the longest shelf life possible.”

Anecdotal evidence suggests that people are veering away from vaccines, that the demand has dropped from a surge in the early stages of the pandemic. The Ontario provincial government, for instance, is urging people to get their boosters and flu shots. Heck, it’s practically begging people to take them to prevent another wave, but the speed at which appointments are available at clinics dispensing the shots would indicate that the demand is just not there.

According to the article, “Canada’s vaccine uptake has been relatively high with 80 per cent of Canadians getting their first two doses, but there has been a much weaker uptake for subsequent booster shots. Just 50 per cent of Canadians have received a third-dose booster and just 14.3 per cent have received a fourth dose, despite public health officials’ recommendations.”

That explains the unused vaccines. It doesn’t explain how they were allowed to expire before being donated to countries where they could be used to save lives.

It’s often said one should look after one’s own before looking to help others. Charity begins at home, and all that. But did no one take stock? Did no one see just how many vials of vaccines were rapidly approaching expiration dates? Why were the people who have the knowledge and the tools to plan not able to predict demand and conclude that so many millions would not be used?

Canada’s surplus doses are supposed to go to COVAX, an international vaccine alliance that has been working on distributing vaccines for various diseases since 2000. Canada’s commitment to contributing the equivalent of 200 million doses through the alliance includes surplus vaccines as well as money Canada provided so developing countries could purchase their own doses. And, to put things in perspective, Canada has already given the equivalent of 140 million doses, including 50 million surplus doses from Canada’s supply as well as cash donations.

Perhaps the demand in other countries is falling, too. India is also at capacity for vaccine intake and was reportedly throwing expired ones.

But we should at the very least have offered the vaccines to others before destroying them.

I recall seeing images in National Geographic of farmers in the US and Europe pouring milk and eggs into rivers. This was many, many years ago. My parents explained it was a measure to maintain prices. That in a year of overabundance, they would rather throw the food than sell it at a lower price.

It happened again during the pandemic with reports of farmers in the US destroying millions of pounds of fresh goods they couldn’t sell with restaurants, hotels and schools closed. Food that could have fed the homeless and the hungry.

I can’t wrap my head around this waste. In our home, house help was always sent home with generous portions. Leftovers could be turned into delicious (okay, sometimes mysterious!) new dishes. Our cats and dog were happy to consume a mush of rotis and milk. We never threw food.

Though Canada is not destroying the vaccines as a protectionist measure, there is lack of action on patent waivers the NDP has been campaigning for.

Really, even seen from a purely selfish perspective, donating about-to-expire vaccines and making it possible for countries to manufacture their own makes so much sense.

Canadians come from all over the world. Just think of the brownie points politicians could earn if they could claim they had sent vaccines to the home countries of their constituents.

It’s hard to believe we didn’t stop to think that we are only as safe as the most vulnerable populations.

Because we may arm ourselves with multiple boosters but so long as there are millions of those without access to vaccines, the virus will find a host, and ultimately, find us. 

And don’t even get me started on the hundreds of thousands of litres of hand sanitizer that expired.