Vaccination is our best defence against the COVID-19 virus and our greatest chance at a return to normalcy and an economic recovery. We also believe that we are in a race against new variants of the vaccine, trying to vaccinate enough of the population to achieve herd immunity and eradicate the virus before new variants evolve against which our vaccines are useless.
Canada’s rate of vaccination has fallen far behind that of our peer countries. In the early days of the vaccine rollout, we were in the top ten for vaccinations per capita. Data gathered by Oxford University’s Our World in Data on February 11th indicates that Canada is now 57th. We have not only fallen behind our peers, but behind countries such as Nepal, Bahrain, or Chile – countries with a fraction of our national wealth and resources. There is no good reason why Canada, a G7 country with a per-capita GDP of over $45,000 USD, one of the 20 wealthiest countries in the world, ranks 57th in vaccination of its people.
Canadians and businesses have sacrificed much in the interest of public safety since the start of this pandemic. Delays in vaccination are not only inflicting additional and unnecessary harm on the Canadian economy. They are causing additional and unnecessary deaths. We ask the government to take all necessary actions to begin vaccinating Canadians at a rate commensurate with the country’s wealth and infrastructure.
