Roundup: Cutting the expected doses in half

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It was another big day for vaccine news, starting with a technical briefing by federal public health officials that gave a bit more clarity on what is happening. Health Canada says we could see approval of the Pfizer vaccine within seven to ten days, while we also got some more information about the roll-out plan, including how the Pfizer and Moderna roll-outs are different, that they have concluded tabletop exercises and found gaps to plug, and that a dry run is scheduled for December 14th, after which they say they will be ready to start receiving vaccines, depending of course on approvals and availability from the manufacturer. But then came the bombshell – raw materials shortages are going to mean that Pfizer has had to cut their expected 2020 production by nearly half, which will mean fewer early vaccine doses to get to healthcare workers and the most vulnerable.

And then there are the provinces. In Quebec, François Legault had to say that his attempted “moral contract” for Christmas was off the table because cases won’t go down, but he also insisted that he wouldn’t have meaningfully done anything different in handling the pandemic, which is bananas. The continued climb of cases in Ontario means that we are likely facing more lockdowns before too long. In Manitoba, Brian Pallister gave a tearful speech about needing to cancel Christmas – but then also stated that it was “unfair” that early doses were being reserved for First Nations (who are especially vulnerable), which is mind-boggling. As for Alberta, where new cases keep breaking records, we got more details on the planned field hospitals (which are not really going just “contingency planning”), and in spite of yesterday’s insistence to the contrary, they are looking at possible military assistance to staff these field hospitals.

https://twitter.com/moebius_strip/status/1334611584824446978

https://twitter.com/robert_hiltz/status/1334561390640701441

Good reads:

  • The government tabled its long-awaited bill on bringing Canadian laws into compliance under UNDRIP. Predictably, Conservative-led provinces are protesting.
  • The government is accused of having quietly signed a deal with the US that gives a loophole into coming changes to the Basel treaty on exporting plastic waste.
  • A group of Black civil servants is launching a class-action lawsuit, alleging that they are being denied employment and advancement because of systemic racism.
  • Erin O’Toole continues to dodge questions about Derek Sloan’s tacit support of anti-vaxxers.
  • Surprising nobody, Jason Kenney is unhappy with the proposed changes to the fiscal stabilisation fund in the Fiscal Update.
  • Taylor Noakes challenges – with facts! – the current hysteria gripping the House of Commons about the supposed “decline of French in Montreal” and its origins.
  • Heather Scoffield is waiting for a plan to “build back better” from O’Toole in areas that are entirely within the Conservatives’ wheelhouse.
  • Robert Hiltz is angry about Premier Legault saying he wouldn’t do anything differently during the pandemic, and you need to read it.

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One thought on “Roundup: Cutting the expected doses in half”

  1. And in the UK, the Tory govt is being slammed for a rushed approval process for political points. The US meanwhile has so many “moving parts” complicating its state-by-state rollout as to make your head spin. *Millions* of anti-vaxers; seventy-five million angry red-hat cultists who would reject a cure for cancer if god-emperor Trump said it was borne of the “Democrat deep state”; a patchwork public/private healthcare system with egregious racial disparities; and the equivalent of 30-35 Legaults, Fords and Kenneys as governors of radioactive red states where herd immunity is being utilized as a covert eugenics program. Biden won’t be able to patch all these potholes by himself; it’s embedded in the American DNA. Little Canada that could really isn’t doing all that badly compared to its meth-addled older brother and old mother England. Why? Because even though it has a bunch of blustering right-wing idiots as premiers, the feds — in what little constitutional capacity they have to mitigate that — are still governed by a Liberal government. The moral of the story to take away from this is that conservatism is bad for the public health.

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