Health Committee on May 10th, 2021

[Dr. Peter Hotez]

Well, they always have to work with the states, but I think it was in the planning and the coordination of helping to create the sites, helping with the use of the military and the National Guard and making recommendations to the states in terms of opening up some of the big sports arenas, for instance, to do this in a high-throughput way.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

You've already talked about the comparative numbers of full vaccinations and partial vaccinations between the U.S. and Canada. Roughly, your numbers are that something over 40% of Americans have been fully vaccinated versus somewhere around 3% of Canadians, so it seems to me that the U.S. has gone for more of a full vaccination strategy. Can you briefly touch on how that has come to be and why that is?

[Dr. Peter Hotez]

They've also provided quite a number of single doses. The numbers overall in the U.S. are 46% single dose and 34% two doses, but in the high-performing states, it's more like 60% and 45%. The reason you could do it was the vaccine supply. There was enough vaccine available from the two mRNA vaccines, less so the J & J vaccines. That was what made it possible: the procurement of vaccines at that scale.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you.

In a recent interview with The Canadian Press, you noted that you had assumed that Canada had essentially been keeping pace with the U.S. in terms of getting our citizens vaccinated, until you looked at the numbers. You were quoted as saying: “I was really astonished—only about a third of the country has received a single dose, and essentially no one's gotten fully vaccinated.” Do you attribute that solely to supply?

[Dr. Peter Hotez]

I think that's probably the biggest barrier: not having an adequate amount of vaccine. The good news is that I do see the numbers picking up for the single dose. It's now heading towards about 40% single dose, so that's better, but still, in terms of full vaccination, the numbers that I see are at only about 3%, so that rounds off to zero.

I think what I would like, and this is why I made the recommendation for the Biden administration to help to a greater extent.... If it looks as though vaccine supply will continue to be low for the next few months, let's help the provinces as much as we can, for both the pragmatic and the emotional reasons that I mentioned earlier.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thanks.

President Biden recently set a new goal for vaccinations in America, calling for 70% of the U.S. adult population to have at least one shot and 160 million Americans fully vaccinated by July 4. In doing so, he announced his administration's plans to implement initiatives to bring the vaccine to people who are less eager to get vaccinated. Can you provide this committee with an overview of what those initiatives might look like?

[Dr. Peter Hotez]

Yes. There were two problems early on that we noticed back in December. Two groups were highly vaccine hesitant. One was black and brown communities, and then conservative groups. There were four news polls, one from PBS NewsHour and others from Monmouth University, Quinnipiac University and Kaiser showing that about 40% to 50% of Republicans said they would refuse vaccinations.

So I started doing two things. One, I began going on a radio podcast and a radio program that reached black and brown communities, and hesitancy really started going down. I was on one very interesting one with one of the historic black churches in Richmond, Virginia. A pediatrician from the church invited me together with the pastor. I said to the pastor that the numbers looked like they were going down. What did he attribute that to? He said that part of it was that doctors like me were reaching out but also that the clergy in black churches really work together to help make that happen. I think he's right. I think that made a big difference. But now the problem is more access in low-income communities than hesitancy. However, with the conservative groups, it still a rip-roaring problem. You're seeing it reflected now in this disparity between blue and deep red states.

My fear is that we're going to reach some of those benchmarks in the blue or blueish states and the Democratic strongholds—and that's already starting to happen. We're already reaching numbers that will look like Israel's numbers, but in the deep red states, we're still greatly underperforming and underachieving. I worry about ongoing virus transmission there. We have to do a better job reaching out to conservative groups. I'm trying to go back on Newsmax and Fox News and stations like that to do what I can. But it's been really tough.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Mr. Davies.

Members, that pretty much brings our questions to a close.

I'd like to thank all ofthe witnesses, particularly our visitors from the Slovak Republic, for their presence here, and thank you once again to Ambassador Koziak for his attendance.

I would also like to extend my appreciation on behalf of the committee to all of the House of Commons staff, particularly today when we've had guests from all over the world. It's quite difficult sometimes to wade through the technical issues. Thank you for that—and as well to the interpreters. It's a challenging job at the best of times, but in times like this, it's even more so. Thank you to everyone.

With that, the meeting is adjourned.