Those are great points and great questions.
I completely agree with your points about looking at the relative efficacy of these vaccines, because they're not direct head-to-head trials. Certainly, the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines were studied in an era that was not the variant of concern era.
I also agree that the metrics we should be looking at don't necessarily have to land on protecting individuals from getting the infection, but on mitigating severity of illness, limiting hospitalizations and limiting deaths. These would be very successful metrics, and would certainly be helpful to navigate our way out of the mess we're in.
The newer technologies are also very useful, because they're, quite frankly, plug and play. You can update your vaccine to reflect circulating variants, and mass-produce them in a rapid manner relative to older vaccine technology that takes a lot longer, and has other issues we don't need to get into on this call.
As you point out, I do sit on the Ontario vaccine distribution task force, and there are publicly available documents for Ontario, as has been mentioned several times in various mainstream media outlets, of the program to rollout vaccination. Yes, there have been bumps along the road, but in general, when we have access to more vaccines, you will see much more widespread distribution.
It's not a fair comparison to say this is the same as influenza or measles vaccine distribution. There are true limitations based on the vaccines we have and cold chain issues. Having said that, all these plans involve: first, distribution through primary care; second, distribution at pharmacies; third, distribution through mass vaccine sites; fourth, distribution through public health clinics; fifth, distribution through community centres, where some communities that might not be as comfortable with the government or health care in Canada will feel more comfortable going; and sixth, mobile trucks and mobile units to help care for underhoused populations.
That is part of the plan. Operationalizing it is another thing, but that's the plan.