Canada has ordered enough coronavirus vaccine doses to inoculate every Canadian at least five times over, with more purchases pending.
With uncertainty about which of many vaccines under development would prove most effective, or how fast they would be approved, richer countries have reserved multiple candidate vaccines and placed options to order even more doses of some. Purchases by affluent countries are creating “deep inequities in terms of global allocation,” a Duke University-based research team says.
Canada could cover 600% of its population with its additional orders. The U.S. has secured enough doses to cover 200% of Americans, with the potential to raise that figure to 450%.
In a television interview, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that if the country has vaccines to spare, “absolutely we will be sharing with the world.”