Evidence of meeting #17 for Health in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vaccines.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
What's the percentage for herd immunity in Canada?
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
Mr. Chair, the honourable member is not allowing me to answer a complex question in a way that would help elucidate the information she's looking for. I would certainly be happy to turn to Dr. Tam to talk about the emerging research around vaccination and its impact on onward transmission.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
I'd just love that report to be tabled with the committee so we can peruse it.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Ms. Rempel Garner, thank you.
Minister Hajdu, if you wish to finish your answer, please go ahead.
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
I'm not sure of the procedure, Mr. Chair, but I would like to turn to Dr. Tam to speak a little bit about vaccination, immunity and why the answer is not yet clear worldwide.
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
The bottom line is that the data on vaccine effectiveness against asymptomatic infection or transmission is not yet available. There's some very limited information, so we're still gathering that, and it would not be prudent to guess at the estimate, although mathematical modellers have tried. That will be published, I hope, in peer-reviewed journals.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Thank you, Dr. Tam.
I would like to remind all members that according to Bosc and Gagnon's House of Commons Procedure and Practice, page 1079, “appropriate courtesy and fairness” should be displayed when questioning witnesses. Thank you.
We go now to Ms. Sidhu. Please go ahead for five minutes.
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Before I begin, I need to highlight one important point for all Canadians. The minister and officials are working hard to fight this battle against the pandemic, but they represent hundreds if not thousands of public servants, military personnel and volunteers. I hope I speak on behalf of all members in thanking all these public servants.
My first question is for Major-General Fortin. My community of Brampton has been hit hard by the pandemic and was one of the first to receive the vaccine, one of the very few to get it before Christmas, but also one of many across the country....
General, can you tell us what has been learned from the logistics of these early deliveries and the dry runs?
MGen Dany Fortin
I can summarize quickly that we have learned a great deal about some of the intricacies of shipping at scale hundreds of packages across the country of a vaccine that is highly sought after. We have seen some discrepancies in tracking numbers and addresses, so errors that are easily fixable, and we have addressed those with the provinces and territories.
We've also identified some risks associated with shipping packages in remote and isolated areas as well as into the north in the winter with the complexities that distribution can present in terms of air travel, road travel as well as over-the-water travel. There's a number of small lessons that have been captured and are being addressed in distribution, particularly as we scale up in the month of April and onward.
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
My next question is for Dr. Tam.
A case of the South African variant has been discovered in Peel Region. What do we know about the ability of the major vaccines to protect Canadians against the new variant?
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada
Research is ongoing, but based on what is available right now.... We have been very fortunate in having two vaccines authorized in Canada that have a very high-vaccine efficacy of over 90%—so 94% and 95% in clinical trials. What we expect based on the data is that it has good coverage for the B117 variant originally reported from the United Kingdom. It seems to have a reduced vaccine effectiveness against the B1.351 variant that originally was reported from South Africa. Even with that, because the vaccines were so effective to start off with, even if there's some reduction, it is expected the vaccines will still be providing a good level of protection.
It is still something we continuously evaluate.
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
Thank you, Dr. Tam.
My next question is to Minister Anand.
Canada is among 14 countries in the entire world that have managed to administer over one million doses of the vaccine up until now. Canada negotiated the highest number of vaccine doses per capita in the world in a highly competitive market.
Minister, can you describe how competitive this market is?
Liberal
Anita Anand Liberal Oakville, ON
I really appreciate the question because people often say that we have this large portfolio with the highest number of doses per capita in the world, but to get to that point we had to work extremely hard in a very short amount of time over the month of August and part of September.
We had to put in place seven bilateral agreements after receiving the advice of the vaccine task force and the Public Health Agency of Canada. That required us to negotiate very quickly so that we were first in line with Pfizer and close to the first in line with Moderna. We had to move quickly for those products, so that result, with seven bilateral agreements and 400 million doses under contract, was extremely hard to do.
That was after having procured two billion items of PPE for Canadians and 40 million rapid tests. I am so grateful to the public service, and particularly the officials at the Department of Public Services and Procurement Canada, for their incredible work on this file.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Thank you, Ms. Sidhu.
Now it's over to Mr. Thériault for two and a half minutes.
Luc Thériault Bloc Montcalm, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
MGen Fortin, in response to a question from the member for Lac-Saint-Jean, you said you did not know why Moderna had cut back on its vaccine shipments. Is that right?
MGen Dany Fortin
Moderna did not flag any problems whatsoever with its supply chain, but the vaccine maker had to adjust to accommodate global demand and deal with production issues, which it did not share with us. We have no reason to believe this will impact the company's ability to meet its objective of delivering two million doses by the end of March.
Bloc
Luc Thériault Bloc Montcalm, QC
Do you know the specific reason why the company reduced its shipments?
MGen Dany Fortin
We don't know the reason for the reduction, but we are in constant contact with the drug maker.
Bloc
Luc Thériault Bloc Montcalm, QC
Minister Anand, do you know why Moderna cut back on its vaccine deliveries? After all, you're in touch with the company daily and you have to make sure it honours the terms of the contract.
Liberal
Anita Anand Liberal Oakville, ON
Let me just say that I am in constant contact with the suppliers. As soon as I heard that there was going to be a delay in deliveries—I wouldn't say “reduction”, because we are going to meet our two-million target at the end of the quarter—I immediately told the Canadian public the reason that I understand has to do with the production facility in Europe being revamped but that is continuing to ensure that we are able to meet our target.