Canada, Mexico ‘top of the list’; will receive priority for vaccines once U.S. opens up exports
Posted March 17, 2021 11:34 am.
Last Updated March 17, 2021 4:00 pm.
There is good news and potentially some bad news on the COVID-19 vaccination front.
The U.S. says Canada gets priority for access to vaccine exports of U.S.-made vaccines as the European Union threatens restrictions.
A day after President Joe Biden announced he was in talks with other countries to help them access vaccines after the U.S. vaccinates most of its population by May, U.S. officials tell Bloomberg that Canada and Mexico are at the top of the list.
Biden has said in the past that the U.S. will not share its vaccines until after it has enough for its own people.
But according to Bloomberg, Biden confirmed on Tuesday that he’s in talks with other countries about sharing vaccines but didn’t name them.
“I’ve been talking with several countries already. I’ll let you know that very shortly,” Biden said.
American protectionist measures around vaccines forced Canada to look to Europe to get its doses, but American access could spark a big change in our vaccination efforts.
RELATED: Canada lags behind U.S., other countries in vaccinations but expects to catch up quickly
The U.S. has raced ahead of most of the world in vaccinating its population under Biden’s administration.
However, the European Union is once again threatening to limit or cut off vaccine exports as it faces delivery shortages.
That could be a problem for Canada given our Pfizer and Moderna doses are produced in Europe but the last time we faced these threats Canada’s shipments were not impacted.
Canada is receiving all 846,000 doses of Moderna next week – there is no reduction.
That‘s totalling just over 2 million Moderna doses by the end of this quarter, as planned.
— Anita Anand (@AnitaAnandMP) March 16, 2021
This comes as Canada expects to receive deliveries of two million doses of vaccines next week. Procurement Minister Anita Anand tweeting Pfizer is set to deliver 1.2-million doses and Moderna will deliver more than 800,000 doses, respectively.
White House confirms Canada asked for vaccine help, won’t say if U.S. has agreed
The White House is confirming that Canada has indeed asked the United States for help in procuring COVID-19 vaccine doses.
But press secretary Jen Psaki would only say they are considering the request, not whether the Biden administration has agreed to it.
Psaki is repeating what she’s been saying for weeks: that President Joe Biden’s priority is to ensure every American is vaccinated first.
She says the U.S. is still fighting a “war” against COVID-19 and that dealing with the crisis on the home front is still job number one.
Psaki also says the White House understands the importance of making sure as many people around the world can get vaccinated in order to bring the pandemic under control.
With files from Bloomberg BNN and The Associated Press
