Health  Speaker, the parliamentary secretary said, “domestic manufacturing...has hardly been a silver bullet” in addressing the vaccine shortage. That is really shocking. Then she referenced Australia, which closed its borders early instead of suggesting that closing the border was racist or xenophobic. Does she honestly believe Canada's domestic manufacturing capacity is adequate to deal with the vaccine shortage?

Health  Speaker, moments ago, the Public Health Agency of Canada confirmed that an individual living in Canada experienced rare blood clotting following immunization with the AstraZeneca vaccine. Yesterday, Australia announced that it is suspending use of the AstraZeneca vaccine following new guidance from European regulators. Will the advice on AstraZeneca usage be changed in Canada?

Health  Speaker, moments ago, the Public Health Agency of Canada confirmed that an individual living in Canada experienced rare blood clotting following immunization with the AstraZeneca vaccine. Yesterday, Australia announced that it is suspending use of the AstraZeneca vaccine following new guidance from European regulators. Will the advice on AstraZeneca usage be changed in Canada?

Health  Speaker, across Canada, given frequent recent changes in advice from the federal government, people are asking questions about the AstraZeneca vaccine and about vaccine dosing interval advice in Canada. Some of this might have been alleviated if the media had access to the process by which the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, or NACI, develops its advice and how that is being used by the government.

Health  In the last couple of weeks, we have had advice that said that AstraZeneca is safe for all age groups; then that it is only safe for those 55 to 63, but not those under 55; then the federal government said it was pausing the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and a few minutes later said it was not pausing the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, or the other way around. Given that NACI is a body created and appointed by the federal government, will the minister give a directive to allow media into the meetings?

Health committee  Wile, I don't want to cut you off, but I have about 30 seconds left and I want to get this on the record. Because I know the federal government is starting to do some education on vaccination, is there anything specifically at the federal level that you would recommend to the committee in terms of that education component—how to target that to your clients and how to partner with you on that information in providing service?

Health committee  The Auditor General's report raises a lot of questions for us to address as a committee. There's been a lot of coverage in recent days of decisions related to the AstraZeneca vaccine and how that may or may not affect vaccine supply and rollout, and there are still outstanding questions on clarity with regard to the other issues that are contained in the matter therein.

Health committee  Matthews, were there any other factors that contributed to the $8.18 a dose? Did we pay a premium for every other vaccine as well?

Health committee  For other countries, production capacity on all the factors you mentioned would be a common denominator, so why did Canada pay a premium for the AstraZeneca vaccine compared to other countries?

Health committee  Matthews, why did Canada pay almost double the price of any other country for the AstraZeneca vaccine?

Health committee  Parliamentarians can't look at the price per dose of vaccines, but now you're commenting on it. When are you going to release the price per dose to this committee?

Health committee  Why aren't we using vaccination rates?

Health committee  But you're the head of Health Canada. In all seriousness, can you tell Canadians that once we've rolled out vaccines, it will help bend the curve?

Health committee  When do you think you would advise for the public health measures you mentioned, like lockdown, to be lifted? What work are you doing on that? How do vaccinations play into that?

Health committee  I'll ask very quickly. Dr. Tam, do you stand by your statement that vaccines aren't a panacea?