When the throne speech was delivered on Sept. 23, Canada had already committed over $1 billion in advance purchase agreements with five drug companies for a minimum of 154 million vaccine doses, if and when these candidate vaccines are proven effective and safe.
Two days later, Canada inked another agreement with another company for 20 million more doses, hedging its bets on which of the vaccine contenders will be the first to arrive.
In doing so, Canada joins the premier league of the vaccine nationalists, a handful of rich countries that have pre-purchased (so far) more than half the world’s expected short-term supply of vaccines.
It is understandable that countries want to ensure their ability to protect their citizens’ health. But most of the world’s population lives in countries without the same financial resources to play the global “me first” vaccine contest. Efforts to elevate national interests over collective global health result in slower progress and limited global capacity to pool resources, while placing the interests of wealthy countries over others, with devastating effects.
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Recent modelling compared two scenarios for allocating the first three billion doses of a vaccine that is 80 per cent effective. The “uncooperative” scenario — in which two billion doses went straight to high-income countries, and the rest to everybody else — would lead to 28 per cent more deaths than a “cooperative” scenario, in which the three billion doses are distributed globally, proportional to population size.
1:40 Canada signs new coronavirus vaccine deals
Canada signs new coronavirus vaccine deals
What can Canada do?
To begin, our pledge to the World Health Organization’s COVAX Facility’s Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) should, at a minimum, match what we invest in procuring vaccine for use within Canada. The facility manages the world’s largest and most diverse portfolio of vaccine candidates. High-income countries like Canada that join COVAX have the option to purchase approved vaccines through the facility, even if they have already entered into bilateral purchase agreements with vaccine companies. On Sept. 25, Canada announced that it would do so, committing $220 million to purchase 15 million more vaccine doses from the facility if and as they are approved.
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Arguably of more importance, the facility’s AMC will provide vaccines to more than 90 eligible poorer countries unable to afford them on their own. The AMC needs to raise $2 billion by December to do so, with the short-term goal of immunizing three per cent of all COVAX countries’ populations. As of Sept. 21, only $700 million had been promised. On Sept. 25, Canada committed $220 million to the AMC, on top of $25 million it had already given. This is welcome and commendable, but it is also inadequate.
The AMC’s longer-term aim is to reach 20 per cent — a goal that will allow health-care workers and vulnerable populations in poor countries to receive vaccines — but this will depend entirely on how generously high-income countries, philanthropists and drug companies donate to the AMC.
Much more AMC funding is needed now, and going forward. We argue that Canada should commit a dollar-per-dollar amount to the AMC based on what it spends on its own vaccine purchases. This would mean providing up to $1 billion more than its current AMC pledge, with funds flowing through our country’s official development assistance (ODA) envelope. Canada has global obligations under international declarations to do so.
Canada says it is a voice for equity and human rights, at home and on the global stage. Actions speak louder than words. Canada in recent years has not been particularly generous in its overseas assistance. We ranked 17th out of 30 of the OECD club of donor nations in 2019, contributing just 0.27 per cent of our gross national income, with no forseeable increase. A $1 billion immediate AMC top-up would still not lift us to our long-pledged 0.7 per cent ODA target.
One billion dollars sounds like a lot of money. But it is only one-fifth the amount the federal government has borrowed weekly since March from the Bank of Canada (which it owns) to finance its pandemic assistance programs. Most less-endowed countries lack the same ability to borrow indefinitely from their own central banks and instead must turn to foreign creditors, with the debt-burden risks that entails. Or do without.
According to the CEO of the world’s largest vaccine maker, the Serum Institute of India, even with expanded global capacity, it may take until 2024 before there are enough doses for the world’s population. In addition to ensuring more generous support for the COVAX Facility, Canada can also ramp up its own vaccine manufacturing capacity. It’s already on a pathway to do so, with the government’s $126-million investment for a new facility in Montréal. The facility’s goal is to produce two million vaccine doses per month for domestic use by summer 2021.
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Why not double-down on this investment, and reserving half the output for AMC use to meet urgent global needs? This would signify to all Canadians the importance of a collective response to this pandemic.
Public health is global
As the world eagerly awaits arrival of an effective vaccine, it’s important to remember three things. First, the longer-term effectiveness of any vaccine will remain uncertain for some time. Second, even if herd immunity to COVID-19 eventually develops, there will almost certainly be another novel infection in the not-so-distant future. Third, one way to deal with both future pandemic risks and the present short supply of COVID-19 vaccine is to embrace the range of non-pharmaceutical interventions that can flatten and even contain infectious curves. This is especially so in those countries that are home to the half of humanity who still lack access to essential health care.
All countries need stronger public health workforces: more nurses, testers, contact tracers and community health workers. All countries need universal health coverage, one of the Sustainable Development Goal targets to which the world (Canada included) committed to achieve by 2030. But it is the poorer half of humanity who needs this more urgently.
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So, if Canada and other rich countries in their vaccine nationalism continue inadvertently to crowd out access for poor countries, they should compensate by massively underwriting the investments such countries need to provide the social protection, income support and food security basic to their citizens’ health, and to strengthen their health systems with the public health capacity to suppress outbreaks as they arise.
It is in our own national interest to do so. As the Sept. 23 throne speech concluded:
“We cannot eliminate this pandemic in Canada unless we end it everywhere.”
TORONTO – Restaurant Brands International Inc. reported net income of US$357 million for its third quarter, down from US$364 million in the same quarter last year.
The company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says its profit amounted to 79 cents US per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with 79 cents US per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue for the parent company of Tim Hortons, Burger King, Popeyes and Firehouse Subs, totalled US$2.29 billion, up from US$1.84 billion in the same quarter last year.
Consolidated comparable sales were up 0.3 per cent.
On an adjusted basis, Restaurant Brands says it earned 93 cents US per diluted share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 90 cents US per diluted share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents US per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Fortis Inc. reported a third-quarter profit of $420 million, up from $394 million in the same quarter last year.
The electric and gas utility says the profit amounted to 85 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from 81 cents per share a year earlier.
Fortis says the increase was driven by rate base growth across its utilities, and strong earnings in Arizona largely reflecting new customer rates at Tucson Electric Power.
Revenue in the quarter totalled $2.77 billion, up from $2.72 billion in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Fortis says it earned 85 cents per share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 84 cents per share in the third quarter of 2023.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 82 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
TORONTO – Thomson Reuters reported its third-quarter profit fell compared with a year ago as its revenue rose eight per cent.
The company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says it earned US$301 million or 67 cents US per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30. The result compared with a profit of US$367 million or 80 cents US per diluted share in the same quarter a year earlier.
Revenue for the quarter totalled US$1.72 billion, up from US$1.59 billion a year earlier.
In its outlook, Thomson Reuters says it now expects organic revenue growth of 7.0 per cent for its full year, up from earlier expectations for growth of 6.5 per cent.
On an adjusted basis, Thomson Reuters says it earned 80 cents US per share in its latest quarter, down from an adjusted profit of 82 cents US per share in the same quarter last year.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 76 cents US per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.