Johnson & Johnson Vaccine | “Challenges around production,” Trudeau said

My Robson
The Canadian Press

Health Canada cleared the viral vector vaccine, developed by J & J’s subsidiary Johnson Pharmaceuticals, safely and effectively last week.

Canada has pre-ordered 10 million doses of the vaccine, making it a single dose required in Canada’s immunization plan.

Trudeau said there is no date yet to receive first deliveries to Canada.

“We have heard in several conversations with Johnson & Johnson that there are challenges surrounding Johnson vaccine production, but we will continue to cooperate with them and look forward to receiving doses as soon as possible,” he said Tuesday. Press conference in Ottawa.

“And as soon as the dosage sent to Canada is confirmed, we will let everyone know. ”

Vaccine expansion in Canada has accelerated since deliveries slowed significantly in February. Nearly one million doses of the Pfizer-BioMtech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines were distributed last week, and 910,000 doses of the Pfizer and Modern vaccines arrived this week.

It took Canada 67 days to vaccinate the first million people. It takes less than a third of that time to vaccinate the second million.

As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 1.9 million Canadians had received at least one dose.

Very quick to follow CDC

Dr. Theresa Tom, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, said Canada was not ready to follow the guidelines of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which would relax public health measures for vaccinators.

Two weeks after receiving their second dose, the CDC announced Monday that Americans could go into intensive care without a mask, with other people who have been fully vaccinated, or with those who have not been vaccinated, but who are at low risk.

There is still much to be known, including the effect of Kovid-19 variants, and how vaccines affect the spread of coronavirus, Dr. Tom said.

“So I think we need to take a thoughtful approach, but it’s very important that we shape our approach to public health when more Canadians are vaccinated,” she said.

The United States was much earlier than Canada, and now more than one in four people have been vaccinated. Canada has vaccinated one in 20 people.

Dr. Tom says there are “early positive signs” that Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are blocking transmission and reducing the severity of the disease, but these are still early days.

The number of new cases in Canada rose to 2,900 cases a day for about three weeks, but since February 23 the average number of deaths per day has dropped from 54 to 37.

Issues that affect everyone

Canada’s vaccine agreements stipulate scheduled shipments for the quarter, and Canada’s 10 million doses of J&J contracts are due between April and September. But we do not yet know how many will be in the spring summer summer and summer.

Johnson & Johnson’s production problems also affect Europe and the United States. Many European countries, which have not yet licensed the vaccine, announced next month that they expect lower doses than expected.

When US President Joe Biden took office last week, he said Johnson & Johnson were lagging behind in production and were making moves to find more production space. Sanofi was first hired to help produce the vaccine in Europe and last week President Biden Merck announced that he would help the United States.

Production lines can take many months to work.