Canada's next Pfizer vaccine shipment deferred

NoNameKetchupChips · 2021-01-19T19:26:31+00:00

The problem is for those people waiting for their 2nd dose.

misantrope · 2021-01-19T21:01:40+00:00

Remember a week ago? How many people were saying just get doses in arms regardless of the supply chain risk?

Ultimately, it’s not always as simple as many would like to believe.

c5_csbiostud · 2021-01-19T18:43:44+00:00

I'm not too worried about this as long as we get these extra doses back. Ie if we expected 4m by end of march, I want 4m by end of march even if less right now.

nbcs · 2021-01-19T19:11:40+00:00

I'm ok with this if ALL north/south America countries are having shipment deferred. If it is solely a Canadian problem, then someone owes us an explanation.

BD401 · 2021-01-19T20:23:39+00:00

This news is disappointing, but not surprising. Expect to see more headlines like this over the next few months. The reality is there's unprecedented global demand for the vaccine, and finite supply right now. The harsh reality is that regardless of how many contracts we sign or orders we place, the real-world physical availability of the vaccines are the primary limiting factor.

AprilsMostAmazing · 2021-01-19T18:09:57+00:00

The presser where they announced this was weak.

Why is Canada getting literally nothing? I thought this was supposed to be equitable sharing of the reduced capacity and then everyone benefits from increased capacity after the upgrades are completed?

As far as we know with our limited information from European governments and the Canadian government.... Canada is getting completely screwed and will suffer.

Anand and others kept stressing "oh we'll still get to 6 million by March". And? That was the number before these upgrades were decided on. It also stands to reason Europe will benefit and have a net gain in vaccines expected by end of March since they are claiming they will not have a noticeable drop from Pfizer and will likely get the benefit of this increased capacity for February & March.

What's going on? Tell me you are going back to Pfizer to get a fucking answer and stop with the "6 million doses" shit.

There could be a reason. Maybe Canada will get the benefit of ALL the expanded capacity. Maybe the European governments will announce this reduction tomorrow. I don't know. But you have to give a better answer than what Minister Anand did today. I understand not knowing if Pfizer just told the task force this morning. I can accept not having an actual answer. But tell me you are going to go back to them and figure out why they promised "equitable treatment" and it now sounds like Canada is the only one being screwed.

jmomcc · 2021-01-19T17:56:41+00:00

Not good. I’ll hold judgement til we see if we meet march’s goal of 4 million by then.. but still would be better to get more out quickly, obviously.

Really need J and J or astrazeneca to get going.

AprilsMostAmazing · 2021-01-19T19:10:30+00:00

Seems to me that they should take a closer look at the UK data for AstraZeneca and get off their asses to approve that vaccine.

CaptainSur · 2021-01-19T23:17:45+00:00

There is a lot of misinformation in the comments in this thread:

Pfizer is shorting not just Canada but all the countries that receive doses from the Belgium manufacturing facility. The shortages are rotated and much of the info is not public from different countries. Pfizer has publicly stated that no country is receiving preference and I think it would be suicidal on their part to engage in preferential allotments. Some countries were shorted or received no vaccine this week, Canada gets none next week, etc.
Canada did not negotiate for vaccine out of America. Not true. Trump enacted an order restricting all production in America for use solely in that country. Making negotiating for vaccine supply from the US plant a moot point. This was surely a Trump shot at Canada since he absolutely knew that our country would have been relying on it's chief allie (America) for this type of vaccine supply. To me this was almost a declaration of war against Canada and it was Trump's payback for his being taken to the cleaners on the Aluminum tariff, Trump's real estate project in Toronto, and the lousy deal he negotiated with Canada on USMCA. Trump is also extremely jealous that he is not a fraction of the man Trudeau is: Trump is old, fat, weak, ugly, a coward and stupid whereas Trudeau is none of the aforementioned.
Premier Ford is pleading for vac supply from the US plant. I agree with him on this and I assess that Trudeau is probably intending to raise this with President Biden. If Biden wants to attempt to repair the damage caused by Trump, parting with doses from that plant which can easily supply them and not impact the US rollout would be a meaningful first gesture. That plant could part with 2-3 million doses and it not make an iota of difference to the vaccination efforts in America. Canada could even propose giving up some 2nd quarter supply as an offset.
Both approved vaccinations give a notable measure of "protection" from their first dose. Even the companies are somewhat all over the map on the 2nd dose timing as they conducted their clinical trials to a specific set of date criteria. For legal reasons they will not affirm any other schedule unless they know they have solid evidence to support the schedule change. As the drugs are so new they are still accumulating this data.
What can be said is that some delay is not the end of the world. On day 28 it is not that all the sudden one is at 0% again.
Ontario has always been holding some vaccine back notwithstanding anything you might read or has been said publicly. They were pursuing a rolling strategy. Even the changes in deliveries will not really have a significant impact on 2nd shots. It will impact more new first shots, unless the province decides to go full out on a Quebec strategy, which I personally doubt.
If you have an opportunity to get your first shot you should thus still take it as you will obtain some benefit. And 40 days from now or so Pfizer believes they will be back on track and making up the shortfall from increased manufacturing capacity.
Pfizer and its partner developed the vaccine at their own cost. No country paid into the development, only for the supply contracts. Some countries paid double the market rate to obtain quicker supply of early production, and also agreed to enhanced data sharing (Israel is one such country).

Long enough but wanted to address a few points.

2021-01-19T20:30:29+00:00

[deleted]

NBAtoVancouver-Com · 2021-01-19T21:24:56+00:00

Key paragraph: "This comes after Pfizer reported a temporary reduction in the company’s ability to deliver vaccines as it makes improvements to its facilities to increase production capacity in the long run."

columbo222 · 2021-01-19T17:55:41+00:00

We are getting exactly 0 Pfizer doses next week, with more information on future deliveries not yet clear.

On the one hand I join the chorus that's increasingly unhappy about the vaccine procurement that the Feds put together.

But on the other hand, this is pretty unacceptable from Pfizer. They had a commitment to us, even if the number of doses wasn't as high as we would have liked. They're still breaking that commitment. What's more, they seem to be changing their tune every day. Since Monday we've gone from 50% less doses for 4 weeks, to ~75% less, to no doses next week and "we'll see" after that. Completely unacceptable IMO.

SonictheManhog · 2021-01-19T18:29:50+00:00

Pfizer shipments have been delayed in the UK and most of Europe as well... so Canada is not alone.

This is almost certainly due to the increased demand by the US and operation warp speed, as I believe Pfizer is increasing their shipments/production in the US. They Americans have the money and the influence so they can jump ahead.

Critter_592 · 2021-01-19T20:11:22+00:00

Cuba about to enter clinical trials of its Soberana 02 vaccine candidate, one of four their Finlay Institute is working on. As background, Cuba produces and exports hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines to over 40 countries.

Vaccine and a vacation?? 🤔

duchovny · 2021-01-19T19:07:23+00:00

We're starting to see many countries surpass us in vaccines received.

omicronperseiVIII · 2021-01-19T22:28:50+00:00

Our problems are beyond one government - they have been a long time in the making. The central problem is that our country settles for mediocrity. Look at the provinces: Ontario’s economy is dominated by the real estate sector, Alberta’s by O&G, B.C.’s by real estate and mining. Quebec is hamstrung by overbearing language and other laws. There’s basically no public demand to change this because people are happy sitting on land with inflated value. Education is overly focused on making people feel good rather than achievement - any impetus for achievement comes from (disproportionately Asian or Jewish) families.

We also can’t afford such a high cost of living - second rate US cities like Pittsburgh are in many ways more desirable than Toronto because of higher salaries and lower taxes/cost of living, assuming a job with health insurance.

tertiumdatur · 2021-01-20T05:51:57+00:00

The vaccine is a commodity for which there is high demand and scarce supply.

Of course no prior agreements will be upheld. Canada may have 9 times over enough vaccines on paper, but that doesn't matter a bit if some other country is willing to pay more for the early shipments.

KingRabbit_ · 2021-01-19T22:22:42+00:00

He says Pfizer has informed the government that this week’s deliveries will be around 82 per cent of what we were expecting. Next week, there won’t be any deliveries and only half of the expected amount will come in the first two weeks of February.

Procurement Minister Anita Anand says she has been speaking with the company and says all resources are being used to make sure we get our deliveries back to normal as soon as possible.

Don't worry, we're paying billions more to be left holding our dick. Pretty fucking great.

castelo_to · 2021-01-19T19:42:00+00:00

Sadly, everyone should've seen this coming. I'll be interested to see what Canada gets in terms of compensation from Pfizer for them not keeping to contract.

Mujin96 · 2021-01-19T19:24:40+00:00

Canada isn’t taken seriously on the global stage...nothing new here

jeywgosjeb · 2021-01-19T21:06:22+00:00

We could just follow the instructions and not fuck up the ikea furniture

horsefromhell · 2021-01-20T02:49:32+00:00

And so it begins, promises not made. Big surprise this is happening.

Canadianman22 · 2021-01-19T20:02:41+00:00

I called this last week. Canada will be put on the back burner while the EU countries will get first dibs from the EU facility and the US gets all the doses from the US facility.

Trudeau had a year. He knew they would get a vaccine out quickly. He could have started working with Canadian companies to get manufacturing facilities set up. Instead he bet on giving our money to other countries in hopes we would get our share.

Now we are in a situation where we are getting no shipments of a vaccine we desperately need from Pfizer for at least 1 week. Further shipments halved and frankly could just as easily be cancelled.

How a nation like Canada ended up in this position is sad. They had a year to get this going and they dropped the ball. Now the US and EU will be massively outpacing us which not only puts more lives at risk at home, but our economic recovery is going to be delayed as well. While business will resume quickly in the US and EU, we will be behind waiting and each day getting worse off for it.

SamLosco38 · 2021-01-19T19:02:48+00:00

We aren’t getting out of this in 2021 are we?

2021-01-19T18:57:41+00:00

Not good. Hopefully Trudeau can figure something out to ensure the vulnerable are vaccinated in short order still.

TheOffsideTruther · 2021-01-19T21:47:44+00:00

I'm wondering if they had bid higher for Oxford and Pfizer rather than trying to get the 'most vaccines bought per capita' then maybe we'd be in a better position.

It's impressive to say you've ordered the most vaccines per person but if they don't actually get here while other countries are vaccinating at a higher rate then it's a moot point.

canada

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