There were some interesting takeaways from the prime minister’s address to the nation about COVID-19 and vaccines.
There has been understandable elation about the news of multiple coronavirus vaccines; that has exceeded all expectations about efficacy and availability, and has offered renewed hope that we may finally tame this horrific virus.
It was also encouraging to learn that the Canadian government has ordered more doses per capita of vaccines than most other countries.
But that enthusiasm must be tempered by the fact that Canada may not get those vaccines as soon as some other countries.
Get daily news
That’s because in Canada, we don’t manufacture those kinds of pharmaceuticals and we’ll likely have to wait while countries that do produce vaccines distribute them to their populations before they fill the orders that Canada and other nations have paid for.
The Opposition Conservatives, of course, criticized the shortfall, but let’s be frank: previous governments, both Liberal and Conservative, have failed to fund pharmaceutical manufacturing for decades, and that short-sightedness has come back to haunt us.
Canada has been a global leader in medical and pharmaceutical research for years, but we’ve dropped the ball on creating a Canadian industry to benefit from that innovative work.
In this new world of global pandemics, it’s a shortcoming that this government and future governments must address.
Bill Kelly is the host of the Bill Kelly Show on Global News Radio 900 CHML.
Listen to the latest from the Bill Kelly Show