Canada's Vaccine Contracts

With COVID-19 cases dropping by 50% since the start of 2022 (38 000 to 18 000), you might be asking yourself, what’s next? Will the vaccine mandate still in full effect, will restrictions be lifted, will things go back to normal? According to the statistics, things should already be back to normal, but by looking at the government's actions in securing millions of extra doses of booster shots, it shows quite the opposite.

As of December 2020, Canada already had enough vaccines secured to protect a population almost 4 times its size. During December 2020, Justin Trudeau decided to make an additional purchase of 20 million doses to accelerate the vaccine calendar. However, the government decided to take it one step further to “protect its citizens” by doubling that order with Moderna to 40 million doses. Fast forward to January 2022, the government of Canada has made an agreement that guarantees access to 65 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine,
 

with access to 120 million more, if necessary. With 23.6 million (71.3%) Canadians fully vaccinated, why did the government secure millions of extra doses? If the government's plan is to keep rolling out boosters the numbers roughly convert to 6 doses per person! Keep in mind these vaccine purchases are strictly for the COVID-19 vaccine. The government is still in the process of rolling out vaccines specifically for Omicron. Buckle up your seat belts, it looks like we are in for quite the summer. As of January 20, 2022, there have been 90,265,540 vaccines distributed across the country. Ontario received the most at 20 million, Quebec with 13 million and BC and Alberta with roughly 6 million each.

As of January 2021, the Government of Canada has set aside $9 billion in funding specifically for vaccines and theraputics. They've secured contracts with Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca, up until 2024 with options to extend. According to the Government of Canada's Vaccine Agreements With Suppliers form, there's a total of 142 million doses secured between suppliers from 2022 to 2024. See data charts below for details.

Minister of Public Services and Procurement, Anita Anand, announced on August 13, 2021, that Canada has officially entered into an agreement with Moderna for additional supply of its COVID-19 vaccine for 2022 and 2023, with an option to extend into 2024. As a part of this agreement, Canada has access to 20 million doses for 2022, with options to secure 15 million additional doses. For 2023, Canada has secured another 20 million doses with the same option as 2022 to secure an additional 15 million doses. 2024 is an option year for Canada. They can choose to secure another 35 million doses, or end the contract. It’s interesting to note how COVID-19 cases are down from a 40,000 7-day average in Jan, 2022 to a 10,000 7-day average in Feb, 2022. With these statistics why would the government continue to secure millions upon millions of vaccines? Seems like the government, as always, has plans of their own. Let’s see what they have in store.
 

As COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to decline leading into 2022, it’s safe to say the “pandemic” is coming to an end. However, with the purchase of 65 million vaccines and 120 million on standby by the government, it looks like they have plans of their own to keep the pandemic going. As 70% of the Canadian population is already vaccinated, it seems like the government will be rolling out booster shots all year long. They’ve secured around 6 boosters for each citizen so far, not to account for the Omicron vaccine they plan on releasing in March 2022.

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