• 'We can't be choosers': Why Canada 'made it's bed' and could never be f

    From Bradley K. Sherman@21:1/5 to All on Wed May 26 15:17:55 2021
    XPost: la.general, talk.politics.mideast, alt.journalism.newspapers
    XPost: atl.general

    Canada wasn’t at the front of line for a coronavirus vaccine,
    but Canadians didn’t have to wait too long before they finally
    gained access, despite not having any manufacturing capabilities.

    "Canada is not at the back of the line," said Noubar Afeyan, co-
    founder and chairman of Moderna on Rosemary Barton Live on CBC a
    few weeks ago.

    The Canadian government made procurement deals in August, when
    the vaccine's viability was relatively unknown, seems to be a
    risk that seems to now be paying off according to Moderna’s
    chairman.

    "The people who were willing to move early on with even less
    proof of the efficacy have assured the amount of supply they
    were willing to sign up for," Afeyan said.

    Why couldn’t Canada be first?
    Now that some vaccine doses have arrived, the conversation has
    partly shifted from arrival time to Canada’s limited production
    capacity when it comes to making vaccines. It started with the
    privatization efforts led by former Prime Minister Brian
    Mulroney, who’s government sold Connaught Labs in 1986.

    “Thirty years ago, we were pretty good, Connaught Labs was our
    biggest producer - we were world class,” said Dr. Earl Brown, a
    virology and microbiology expert at the University of Ottawa.

    The sale of Connaught Labs and the failure to course correct
    with emergence of SARS-CoV, H1N1 or HIV has loomed over Canada
    for decades and is now displayed during the pandemic. As a
    result, the Trudeau government has to rely on purchasing
    vaccines from seven different countries, and has secured 414
    million doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

    “None of the vaccines proposed are ones we can make in Canada in
    quantity, because we just don't have any production facilities
    really anywhere in Canada,” said Brown.

    The National Research Council is set to be retrofitted to be
    able to produce smaller doses of the coronavirus vaccine, which
    it would need approval for, but construction has been delayed by
    months. Much of technology in Canada is not set for synthetic
    vaccines according to Brown, so any new developments will need
    to be ready to work on, if they invest in vaccine production.


    “We gotta have a vaccine platform. We have to build something on
    the ground, but we have to be careful. We don't fight today's
    war with yesterday's weapons,” he said.

    In April 2010, the Conservative Party of Canada decided to
    cancel the production of an $88-million dollar HIV vaccine pilot
    production facility. Winnipeg International Centre for
    Infectious Diseases had been named as the successful bid the
    year prior, but before shovels could get in the ground, the
    project was dead and gone.

    At the time, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) officials
    cited a lack of scientific, technical and sustainability
    criteria outlined in the request for proposals by all bidders,
    and felt it had found capacity to produce the vaccine elsewhere.

    “You make your bed, you live in it, you sleep in it and in
    Canada, there's no vaccine companies. So that's the way it is,”
    said Brown.

    Complacency rules the day

    It wasn’t just in 2010 that Canada made the wrong decision when
    it came to vaccine production, but the decades prior, Brown
    points to a lack of funding for research within the field. He
    noted that there was an air of complacency around emerging
    viruses, and nobody expected we’d be living in a pandemic of
    this scale.

    “I think we felt very complacent about infectious disease. We
    think if a problem comes up we can solve it, but problems don’t
    tell you how fast or how big they’re going to be,” he said.

    But, that attitude seems to be changing, and Brown thinks it
    needs to be, especially as infectious disease specialists
    predict more viral outbreaks to occur in the upcoming years.

    “We're going to be living in the age of emerging diseases a bit
    more here and we gotta be ready to fight that,” he said.

    While there is finger pointing from Conservatives and Liberals
    alike about why Canada wasn’t first in the pecking order when it
    comes to a vaccine, Brown is quick to remind them that being
    amongst the first group is a big win.

    “We want to be able to get the vaccine to Canadian in a timely
    manner. Whether we're 1st, 2nd or 10th, we're fairly close. We
    can't be choosers,” said Brown.

    Frankly speaking, some of the attitudes about Canada deserving
    and wanting to be first have shocked Brown, who points to
    Canada’s desire to balance the budget while sacrificing
    investment in public health, microbiology research and
    production facilities.

    “We did the expedient thing, which saved nickels and dimes in
    the past, but now we’ve got a pandemic. Don't demand other
    people fix our problems, be a little bit more stoic about it and
    maybe be a little bit more humble,” said Brown.

    What can Canada do to improve in another health crisis?
    While the Canadian government has made promises to up its
    investments in public health, Brown admits he’d like to see the
    same be done for medical health research and production
    facilities. He said that solely putting all the funding into
    public health won’t solve problems, and Canada has great
    scientists and now is the time to incentivize them to stay home.

    “We've got great science in this country. We've got people who
    know what to do, we know how to enable them, now we have to
    organize them,” said Brown.

    While it’s been a long time since Canada made grand-scale
    investments, Brown thinks it’s clear as day that the Trudeau
    government should invest in vaccine production facilities.

    “It's clear as day that Canada needs to invest in vaccine
    production similar to how they should be investing in public
    health. I think we should have the capability for vaccine
    production, We should have the infrastructure to make vaccines
    at the drop of a hat,” said Brown.

    https://news.yahoo.com/vaccine-production-canada-204304881.html
     

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