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Trudeau announces plan to purchase 76 million doses of Canadian-made COVID-19 vaccine
PM says rapid tests are being deployed to the provinces today
· CBC News· Posted: Oct 23, 2020 12:04 PM ET
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau leaves after a press conference on the COVID-19 pandemic in Ottawa. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today announced another contract to buy a promising COVID-19 vaccine now in development — part of a plan to secure millions of vaccine doses to inoculate Canadians from the novel coronavirus.
Trudeau said the government has signed a contract to procure 76 million doses from the Quebec City-biotech company Medicago.
Medicago is developing the vaccine in partnership with the British drug company GlaxoSmithKline. The two companies have said its pre-clinical results show the vaccine demonstrated a "high level of neutralizing antibodies following a single dose."
If the vaccine also performs well in a clinical setting, the companies are on track to make it available in the first half of 2021. Medicago has said it has the manufacturing capacity to produce as many as 100 million doses in 2021.
The federal government is spending $173 million to help Medicago develop the vaccine and build a large plant in Quebec to produce it. Trudeau also announced an $18.2 million investment in Vancouver-based Precision NanoSystems, which offers technology to produce vaccines and therapeutic drugs.
Canada already has signed six other contracts for tens of millions more vaccine doses with other pharmaceutical giants, such as AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer. All told, the federal government has secured 358 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine — an insurance policy if some of the vaccines in development prove to be ineffective in clinical trials.
"We are coming at this from every angle," Trudeau said.
PPP ordered and received by the Government of Canada
| Item | Quantities ordered | Quantities received | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hand sanitizer (litres) | 20,646,000 | 20,646,000 | |
| Cloth masks | 9,000,000 | 7,928,071 | |
| Face shields | 60,313,000 | 50,132,310 | |
| Surgical masks | 395,991,150 | 309,902,900 | |
| Gowns | 132,591,440 | 102,490,773 | |
| N95 respirators | 153,170,220 | 65,695,116 | |
| Gloves (pairs) | 1,178,700,578 | 505,036,295 | |
| Face coverings | 72,345,784 | 20,690,600 | |
| Ventilators | 40,547 | 3,600 |
This massive procurement effort is aimed at ensuring there will be enough vaccine doses on hand for all Canadians who want them, although a timeline for delivery is not yet certain. No COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for use in the western world.
When asked for a more precise timeline on when the vaccines will be available in Canada, Trudeau said there's still much more work to do to ensure a vaccine candidate is safe to use.
Trudeau said he's hopeful that vaccines can be deployed in the early part of 2021. He said that, to start, front line health care workers and vulnerable populations, such as seniors living in long-term care homes, will have priority access.
"Nothing will be distributed in Canada until Health Canada is absolutely certain that the safety of Canadians is being properly covered and taken care of," Trudeau said.
"We were hoping that the vaccines would arrive yesterday, but they won't. There's still more months of work to do. We all want to get this crisis behind us as quickly as possible. We're working on a vaccine safely, responsibly and quickly."
The U.S. is positioned to receive some of the American-made vaccines first, because taxpayers there helped to fund most of the front-end costs of developing those drugs through the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed.
WATCH: Trudeau is asked about vaccine availability
The announcement of the Medicago purchase comes on the same day the government detailed its planned spending for the remainder of the 2020-21 fiscal year through the supplementary estimates tabled in Parliament.
The Public Health Agency of Canada is to receive an additional $5.4 billion to fund further medical research and to help develop and purchase more vaccines and COVID-19-related treatments for the Canadian market as the global scramble for such drugs continues apace.
Trudeau also detailed the government's plan to deploy rapid tests throughout the country — devices that health experts say could lessen the burden on lab-based testing in this country as cases continue to climb.
Trudeau said trucks full of Abbott Laboratories' Panbio COVID-19 Rapid Test devices are out today distributing tens of thousands of tests to the provinces and territories. Another Abbott product, the ID NOW, arrived in Ontario yesterday, Trudeau said.
Trudeau said it will now be up to provinces to determine how to use these tests as part of a larger testing strategy.
"Access to rapid tests will vary across the country depending on the province in question. Rapid tests have advantages but also disadvantages, and need to be part of a whole strategy of testing and tracing," Trudeau said, adding that the federal government's function is to simply buy and distribute them to the jurisdictions charged with administering health care.
Health experts and the opposition Conservatives have said Health Canada's regulatory process has been too slow to this point. Other Western nations have had such tests in the field for months.
The vast majority of tests to date have been done at public health clinics, with samples being sent to laboratories for analysis — a process that can take days.
The Panbio, which can produce results in less than 30 minutes, is designed to give "preliminary test results." According to Abbott, a negative result "doesn't preclude SARS-CoV-2 infection."
The company warns that such a test "cannot be used as the sole basis for treatment or other management decisions."
While much faster, these tests are considered to be less accurate than the "gold standard"— the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing process currently in use in much of Canada.
If administered properly, PCR tests are highly accurate, identifying positive cases nearly 100 per cent of the time.
Antigen tests are also considered highly accurate but they are not as sensitive as molecular PCR tests run through a lab.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and other provincial leaders have encouraged Health Canada regulators to quickly approve such devices so tests can be deployed to airports, high-risk workplaces, long-term care homes and schools, among other settings.
Health Canada has so far approved four point-of-care molecular testing devices and two antigen tests, which detect the presence of viral proteins in biological samples. These tests are destined for health care settings such as doctors' offices, pharmacies and walk-in clinics.
Preliminary results from a clinical study conducted by Abbott on 241 samples found that the Panbio test has a sensitivity rate of 93.3 per cent in people suspected of having been exposed to COVID-19 and those who have experienced symptoms over the previous seven days.
(A test with 93.3 per cent sensitivity will correctly return a positive result for 93.3 per cent of people who have the disease but will return a negative result — a false-negative — for 6.7 per cent of the people who have the disease and should test positive.)
About the Author
"Reply to @David Amos: You don't know me.....but I know you".
N'esy Pas
What does that mean?
It is not French or English or any other language as far as I know!
Methinks that is faible.
I just want to have fun...
its blatantly obvious to anyone paying attention that our dubious PM who does not wish to account for his doings with "WE" wants the opposition to be blamed for causing an election that they don't want. Nobody can deny that in tumultuous 40th Parliament Harper's minority government defied demands for documents pertaining Afghanistan and his opposition played into his hand and found him in contempt of Parliament. However harper's gamble paid off in spades when the electorate sent him back to the Hill with a majority mandate for reasons I will never understand. I know Iggy was a rather appalling dude to be the leader of what he claimed was "Canada's Natural Governing Party" . however in my humble opinion Harper and his party took the cake in that regard. Clearly many Canadians had enough of Harper et al in 2015. To sooth my own soul after not running for public office for nearly 10 years I stress tested them all as best I could 3 more times while litigating against the Queen in Federal Court but to no avail. I learned the hard way that the sheople whom Trudeau The Younger calls "peoplekind" always get the governments they deserve.
Veritas Vincit
David Raymond Amos
Trade Agreement: CETA / CFTA
Request for Information regarding Service Provider(s) for Federal Quarantine / Isolation sites for The Government of Canada
The Government of Canada (GoC) is considering engaging a Third Party Service Provider for Federal Quarantine / Isolation sites that will be used to house and care for people for public health and other related federal requirements associated with the COVID-19 pandemic response. The Government is seeking feedback from current service providers about potential options for standing up, operating and managing all of the services associated with these sites. The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to seek feedback from potential service providers in order to develop a strategy for the potential future management of these sites going forward.
Should the Government of Canada determine that a third-party managed solution going forward is a viable strategy, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) may issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) to provide suppliers the opportunity to bid on the services required as per the schedule contained in this document.
This RFI seeks industrys feedback to:
i. Obtain supplier feedback, with advice and guidance on the operation of these sites;
ii. Assess industrys interest in bidding on a potential the contemplated RFP;
iii. Identify and minimize any potential competitive barriers where possible; and
iv. Ensure that potential suppliers can deliver the type of services being requested in a possible upcoming RFP
why the insult?
https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2020/10/01/covid-19-vaccine-rollout-unlikely-before-fall-2021-experts-say/
Yet we can claim this is promising despite not even having been shown to produce antibodies in humans yet and we are hopeful for early 2021. Glad to see that JT knows more than the McGill researchers. Where is the science behind those statements I wonder?
WOW
Astonishing.
NONE!
Seems to me that cons lack little gray cells!
You couldn't possibly!
\/
In reality, the PM is attempting to ensure that all Canadians will get vaccine as soon as a viable one is available.
It is a solid move on his part.
Since there is so little knowledge available on the virus the first vaccine may not be as good as subsequent ones
Budgeting enough vaccine to provide at least 2 shots to Canadians is sound as well, as there is as yet no information, that I am aware of, on how many doses may be required.
As unlikely as you might think, the government will not be purchasing a billion doses!
The multiple comments exaggerating how much will be spent on excessive amounts of vaccine truly serve no useful purpose at all.
its blatantly obvious to anyone paying attention that our dubious PM who does not wish to account for his doings with "WE" wants the opposition to be blamed for causing an election that they don't want. Nobody can deny that in tumultuous 40th Parliament Harper's minority government defied demands for documents pertaining Afghanistan and his opposition played into his hand and found him in contempt of Parliament. However harper's gamble paid off in spades when the electorate sent him back to the Hill with a majority mandate for reasons I will never understand. I know Iggy was a rather appalling dude to be the leader of what he claimed was "Canada's Natural Governing Party" . however in my humble opinion Harper and his party took the cake in that regard. Clearly many Canadians had enough of Harper et al in 2015. To sooth my own soul after not running for public office for nearly 10 years I stress tested them all as best I could 3 more times while litigating against the Queen in Federal Court but to no avail. I learned the hard way that the sheople whom Trudeau The Younger calls "peoplekind" always get the governments they deserve.
I have decided to just continue to try to find some fun poking holes in stuffed shirts and to seek a myth called justice by standing before politically appointed crooks hopefully 3 more times. If only to secure a public record should any of my seed wish to review someday and check my work. In the "mean' time I have no doubt Trudeau The Younger is about to drop the writ and make his loyal sheople happy voting for him into a majority mandate again. However everybody knows there will be no more sunny ways coming from the PMO in short order once the Yankee election is history and the worldwide economy takes the very predictable nosedive because of the damage already done by WHO and its cohorts with the malicious COVID 19 nonsense N'esy Pas?
Veritas Vincit
David Raymond Amos
Trade Agreement: CETA / CFTA
Request for Information regarding Service Provider(s) for Federal Quarantine / Isolation sites for The Government of Canada
The Government of Canada (GoC) is considering engaging a Third Party Service Provider for Federal Quarantine / Isolation sites that will be used to house and care for people for public health and other related federal requirements associated with the COVID-19 pandemic response. The Government is seeking feedback from current service providers about potential options for standing up, operating and managing all of the services associated with these sites. The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to seek feedback from potential service providers in order to develop a strategy for the potential future management of these sites going forward.
Should the Government of Canada determine that a third-party managed solution going forward is a viable strategy, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) may issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) to provide suppliers the opportunity to bid on the services required as per the schedule contained in this document.
This RFI seeks industrys feedback to:
i. Obtain supplier feedback, with advice and guidance on the operation of these sites;
ii. Assess industrys interest in bidding on a potential the contemplated RFP;
iii. Identify and minimize any potential competitive barriers where possible; and
iv. Ensure that potential suppliers can deliver the type of services being requested in a possible upcoming RFP
its blatantly obvious to anyone paying attention that our dubious PM who does not wish to account for his doings with "WE" wants the opposition to be blamed for causing an election that they don't want. Nobody can deny that in tumultuous 40th Parliament Harper's minority government defied demands for documents pertaining Afghanistan and his opposition played into his hand and found him in contempt of Parliament. However harper's gamble paid off in spades when the electorate sent him back to the Hill with a majority mandate for reasons I will never understand. I know Iggy was a rather appalling dude to be the leader of what he claimed was "Canada's Natural Governing Party" . however in my humble opinion Harper and his party took the cake in that regard. Clearly many Canadians had enough of Harper et al in 2015. To sooth my own soul after not running for public office for nearly 10 years I stress tested them all as best I could 3 more times while litigating against the Queen in Federal Court but to no avail. I learned the hard way that the sheople whom Trudeau The Younger calls "peoplekind" always get the governments they deserve.
However your constant attacks on my reputation and teasing me about running for public office I am considering running in the next election in your neighborhood again. Methinks hat should rot your fancy blue socks and put quite a knot in your nasty knickers as well Better start baking a lot more butter tarts for your buddies N'esy Pas?
Veritas Vincit
David Raymond Amos