Melissa Couto Zuber, The Canadian Press
Posted on Sunday, February 21, 2021 at 8:15 AM EST
Canadians studying social media can come across photos of their fellow Americans with wide smiles and vaccination cards showing they have been inoculated against COVID-19.
A recent expansion of vaccine launches in the United States has far surpassed its northern neighbor, and some Canadians are wondering why distribution here is so far behind.
Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious disease doctor in South Carolina, says that while the speed of the U.S. launch has been impressive lately, it hasn’t been without its flaws.
Communication between states has been largely lacking, she said, and the absence of a uniform standard for vaccine eligibility has led to inconsistencies between jurisdictions. Some states, for example, include teachers with a high position on the priority list, while others continue to work to inoculate those 80 and older.
Confusion in the early stages of the launch caused frustration and diminished confidence, he added. And while the change to a new presidential administration last month has led to some improvements, Kuppalli says there is room for more.
“I don’t think we’re the model of success,” he said in a phone interview. “We have had many challenges. … but it is improving “.
“Communication is better, there is certainly more transparency and states have been very inclined to increase vaccination measures and deploy mass vaccination sites. So all that is helping.”
The United States vaccinated an average of 1.7 million Americans a day this week and had administered at least one dose to more than 12% of its population as of Friday.
Canada, which recently dealt with weeks of delays and outages sent by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, has distributed nearly 1.4 million doses since it began deployment in mid-December, covering about 2.65% of its population with at least one dose.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that vaccine delivery will increase rapidly, but that provinces will prepare to roll out nearly 1.5 million doses over the next three weeks.
Americans have many factors in their favor when it comes to speeding up the distribution of vaccines, experts say, including a much more extensive supply than the Canadian-boosted production of Moderna, based in the United States.
While having the supply is the first step, Kuppalli says introducing these vaccines to pharmacies, where they can be easily administered, has also helped. The U.S. government announced weeks ago its goal of supplying vaccines to about 40,000 pharmacies in the coming months.
Canada has not yet reached the pharmacy stage of the vaccine launch, but Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease expert at the University of Toronto, hopes this will happen once we have enough supply to branch out.
“We have exactly the same plan, we just need the critical mass of vaccines,” said Bogoch, who is also part of the Ontario vaccine distribution working group. “When we get it, you’ll see coast-to-coast vaccines being offered in many different environments.”
While pharmacy distribution makes sense for rapid deployment, it can also lead to dose-loss issues if people don’t show up for their appointments, says Kelly Grindrod, a professor at the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy. .
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines should be used in a relatively short time after thawing them from ultra-cold storage temperatures, says Grindrod, and once a vial has been drilled, this interval decreases even further. .
She says Canada has been learning from the setbacks of loss of experience experienced by other countries and expects plan B lists to be drawn up of individuals that can be filled quickly when no submissions are made.
These lists must be made fairly, however, he warns.
“You have to make sure there is no queuing. So your friend doesn’t come in, they’re actually people who would normally fall into the next round of priority. “
Grindrod says the queue jump (where people at lower risk of contracting the virus or experiencing poor COVID results are vaccinated before higher-priority groups) has been culturally more unacceptable in Canada than in the United States, a country without health universal. care system.
There is, therefore, some justifiable outrage, he adds, when Canadians see American friends bragging about getting their blows, especially if they are not in high-risk populations.
“Equity is probably the most important principle of Canadian vaccine deployment,” Grindrod said. “And I’m not sure that’s the case in the US”
While the U.S. launch has had its flaws, Grindrod admires some of the most unique approaches that occur south of the border to ensure high-risk groups can get their doses.
He noted the recent role that black churches have played in coordinating inoculation initiatives between neighborhoods that are not normally served, and pharmacists that have driven vaccines to remote communities to inoculate those who cannot easily reach a vaccination center.
“You see really positive examples in which the communities themselves help create effective outreach,” he said.
“So I think these are the real lessons we can learn from the US.”