When the throne speech was delivered on Sept. 23, Canada had already committed over $1 billion in advance purchase agreements with five drug companies for a minimum of 154 million vaccine doses, if and when these candidate vaccines are proven effective and safe. Two days later, Canada inked another agreement with another company for 20 million more doses, hedging its bets on which of the vaccine contenders will be the first to arrive.

In doing so, Canada joins the premier league of the vaccine nationalists, a handful of rich countries that has pre-purchased (so far) more than half the world’s expected short-term supply of vaccines.

It is understandable that countries want to ensure their ability to protect their citizens’ health. But most of the world’s population lives in countries without the same financial resources to play the global “me first” vaccine contest. Efforts to elevate national interests over collective global

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When the throne speech was delivered on Sept. 23, Canada had already committed over $1 billion in advance purchase agreements with five drug companies for a minimum of 154 million vaccine doses, if and when these candidate vaccines are proven effective and safe. Two days later, Canada inked another agreement with another company for 20 million more doses, hedging its bets on which of the vaccine contenders will be the first to arrive.

In doing so, Canada joins the premier league of the vaccine nationalists, a handful of rich countries that has prepurchased (so far) more than half the world’s expected short-term supply of vaccines.

It is understandable that countries want to ensure their ability to protect their citizens’ health. But

PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons

When the throne speech was delivered on Sept. 23, Canada had already committed over $1 billion in advance purchase agreements with five drug companies for a minimum of 154 million vaccine doses, if and when these candidate vaccines are proven effective and safe. Two days later, Canada inked another agreement with another company for 20 million more doses, hedging its bets on which of the vaccine contenders will be the first to arrive.

In doing so, Canada joins the premier league of the vaccine nationalists, a handful of rich countries that has pre-purchased (so far) more than half the world’s expected short-term supply of vaccines.

It is understandable that countries want to ensure their ability to protect their citizens’ health. But most of the world’s population lives in countries without the same financial resources to play the global “me first” vaccine contest. Efforts to elevate national interests