Thought of the Day - June 15 2021 - Vaccine Wars: Winners and Losers

Global Vaccination

In the global scheme of things, it has been China, and to a lesser extent Russia, who have come to the aid of the world.

Despite the announcement in May of tens of millions of doses for the world, the US has been supporting its "US first " philosophy with its front-runners Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Part of this is making sure that these companies limit the production licensing of the strategic mRNA vaccine. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca has been trying a different approach, only to be stymied by Europe; they now face multiple lawsuits based on the fact they had the audacity to try to supply non-EU countries.

So, what does this mean? Welp, in short, we now have a dual-world system. Much of the world, shut out by the west, now looks to China and Russia for medical supplies, including vaccines. Whether you view China's approach as altruistic or as part of their world domination strategy really does not matter. The truth of the matter is their geopolitical influence has increased due to COVID. In short, they were there, while the western world has been fighting over profits and vaccination rates at home.

We wrote over a month back about the possibility of the west supplying the world, when Joe called for a moratorium on royalties. While this may have been a noble statement, as expected, nothing has happened since ( Thought of the Day - May 6 2021 - It's a Start ).

Just to make sure you understand the picture (well to the best that is reported in the west):

• China, like the USofA and Europe, has had two vaccines approved by the WHO;

• Domestically China has administered more than 800 million shots - on par with all of the western world combined;

• China has already donated or delivered at cost, about 400 million vaccine doses, triple that of the western world.

And Canada? While there have been pledges of several billion of taxpayers' money, there has been nothing to indicate how this translates to vaccine doses - it is just an indication of how much "middlemen" will net.

Enter the G7 summit (well I guess it is the G8 now). Remember, despite making up only 13% of the global population, the G8 countries have secured over a third of the world's vaccine supply. To make up for this, a new round of pledges were just made:

• The US has announced plans to donate 500M doses of the Pfizer vaccine (they previously offered 60 million doses);

• Japan, having no domestic vaccine, has pledged $1bn in vaccine funding;

• The EU has pledged €500m, plus additional loans, yes loans of €500m. In addition, EU countries have collectively pledged the equivalent of more than €1bn - Germany, France, Italy and Sweden have promised at least 100m doses;

• The UK has committed to providing 100M doses over the next 12 months - 25M by the end of 2021;

• Trudeau has pledged some 13 million of Canada's surplus vaccines to help the world.

Don't get me wrong this is all great news, but it also smacks of too-little-too-late.

Meanwhile, A Number of Vaccine-Related Problems Have Been Taken Care of Here in Canada

• Health Canada recently extended the expiry date of tens of thousands of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses by one month - easing pressure on Canadians scrambling to get a second shot before the shots went to waste;

• Vancouver Coastal Health apologized after confirming a dozen incidents in which youth were given the wrong COVID-19 vaccine. Everything will be okay, they say, as they are updating their immunization processes;

• As it does not look like Canada will reach the 75% first dose rate for July 1, reports are now being changed from the metric of "of the total population" to "of the eligible population". This gives a boost to vaccination rates of 8% in reported figures;

• Canada said no to 310,000 contaminated J&J vaccine doses (remember the US is trying to get rid of 60M of them - interesting how this number lines up with the earlier Biden vaccine pledge); I am not sure where the other 90 million J&J doses ended up ( Thought of the Day - April 13 2021 - Vaccine Wars Bi-weekly Update ). And don't forget there were at least 70M doses of AstraZeneca tied up in the same Baltimore plant debacle, unfortunately, Canada received and administered 1.5M of them. Lesson learned, I guess.

Cheers

Cliff