Home Health COVID-19 Vaccine development in Quebec & BC announced today by Trudeau

Vaccine development in Quebec & BC announced today by Trudeau

76 million vaccine doses hoped for in 2021

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Island Social Trends
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Trudeau, vaccine, COVID, October 23 2020
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced more vaccine procurement (October 23, 2020).
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Friday October 23, 2020 | VICTORIA, BC

by Mary P Brooke, B.Sc., editor | Island Social Trends

The federal government continues to work on contracting with Canadian companies for vaccine development as well as PPE production.

Today Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that a Vancouver-based company called Precision Nanosystems was awarded an $18.2 million contract to through the federal government’s industrial research investment program, to produce vaccines and therapeutic drugs.

The federal government will purchase 76 million doses of Canadian-made vaccines, Trudeau announced today in Ottawa. The federal government is spending $173 million to help Medicago develop the vaccine and build a large plant in Quebec to produce it.

Medicago has said it has the manufacturing capacity to produce as many as 100 million doses in 2021.

“Around the world, the best and the brightest are coming together to find solutions to this pandemic,” Trudeau said today.

“Canada has a range of agreements with a range of vaccine developers for their most promising candidates,” he said. Canada also has access through the GAVI international program to more doses of future COVID-19 vaccines.

“When a vaccine is ready, Canada will be too,” the prime minister said. “We are coming at this from every angle,” he responded to media today.

Canada already has signed six other contracts for tens of millions more vaccine doses with other pharmaceutical giants: AstraZeneca, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, Pfizer, and Moderna. All told, the federal government has secured 358 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine — an insurance policy if some of the vaccines in development prove to be ineffective in clinical trials.

In the UK some people (mostly young and healthy) have volunteered to be infected with COVID-19 and then receive some trial vaccines (as reported by CTV on October 20). This indicates the intensity of the pandemic for its impact on society and the economy.

Living with COVID-19 in our midst:

Meanwhile, Canadians are learning with live with the public health measures for protecting ourselves against infection by the COVID-19 virus. That includes physical distancing, frequent hand-washing, avoiding close contact, not attending large gatherings, keeping personal social bubbles small, and staying home if not feeling well.

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LINKS from BC Health and BC CDC:

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BC CDC has issued safe Halloween protocols.