Pandemic Response Report Card: Canada
It has been …
… since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said "Only by protecting each other can we protect ourselves. Canada is ready to help lead a coordinated global response which will contribute to overcoming the pandemic"
Fund the Global Response
We need at least US $52 billion to fund the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022. Grant financing by donor countries accounts for at least US $27.7 billion, or 53%, of this. Governments must act fast to fill this funding gap. To date, US $2.3 billion has been committed by members of the G20.
Dismantle Barriers to Vaccine Supply
Only a handful of countries have the capacity to manufacture vaccines. We need urgent action to share mRNA technology and intellectual property rights, and to adapt existing facilities and acquire the materials needed to scale up vaccine production globally.
Share SDRs for Economic Recovery
The pandemic’s aftershocks continue to devastate the economies of many countries. High-income countries must support more vulnerable nations with all tools available, including Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), an international reserve asset that can help support countries in emergencies. Rechannelling an initial $100 billion of SDRs in 2021 to low income and vulnerable middle income countries is a smart investment in a fairer, greener, and better recovery for everyone. To date, $60 billion has been committed from all advanced economies.
Ambitious Replenishment of the World Bank's IDA20
Deliver doses
Low and lower-middle income countries still need nearly 1.9 billion doses to fully vaccinate 70% of the population by mid-2022. To help close the gap, members of the G20 have promised to share over 2.7 billion doses by mid-2022. To date, 1.31 billion have been delivered. Note: in response to calls from Africa CDC to pause vaccine donations until the second half of 2022, scoring for the delivery of doses was last updated on 17 February 2022 to reflect how well donors delivered on commitments when there were significant constraints on the supply of COVID-19 vaccines. Deliveries and updates to published dose delivery will continue to be monitored.
Canada has not published a dose delivery plan.
What’s next?
Canada was an early and vocal supporter of multilateral efforts to scale up access to vaccination in the world’s poorest countries, committing $1.1 billion to the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) in 2021.
However, the talk was not always followed by action. Canada over-purchased vaccines — it bought enough to vaccinate each Canadian more than five times. This vaccine hoarding is reducing developing countries’ access to vaccines and undermining global vaccination efforts. And only 45.4% of Canada’s promised doses have been delivered.
Canada has repeatedly emphasized the need for a strong global economic response, promising recently to “finish the global fight against COVID-19.” Increases in development investments in the past two years and a pledge to recycle 20% of Canada’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) allocation show commitment to deliver needed economic support. But significantly more will be needed in 2022.
In 2022, Canada must:
Share resources. Contribute CAD $1.1 billion to the global pandemic fight, including another $780 million to ACT-Accelerator partners to purchase enough vaccines, tests, treatments, PPR and oxygen in developing countries, plus $325 million for delivery costs such as cold-chain equipment, syringes and training for health care workers.
Share more SDRs with developing countries, deliver quickly on the initial promise of transferring 20% to developing countries, and do this without piling too much unsustainable debt on these countries.
Share doses: Speed-up the delivery of the promised dose to donate, in a predictable manner and with sufficient shelf-life, and avoid over-purchasing and stockpiling doses.
Share knowledge: Support the TRIPS waiver at the WTO, and add ‘COVID-19 vaccine’ to the list of eligible products for export in the Patent Act in accordance with the Canadian Access to Medicines Regime.