Via Canoe.ca, a report from The Canadian Press by Helen Branswell: Feds expecting millions of unused H1N1 vaccines. Excerpt:
Up until now, Canadian authorities have steadfastly refused to discuss what they might do with the excess vaccine, saying they wanted to ensure Canada’s needs were being met before crossing that bridge.
That left the country in the unusual position of being odd-man-out of an international agreement brokered by U.S. President Barack Obama’s White House to donate vaccine to the World Health Organization.
The U.S. and the governments of 10 other vaccine-purchasing countries promised to give the WHO 10 per cent of their supplies on an ongoing basis for redistribution to developing countries that have been unable to buy pandemic vaccine.
However, vaccine production problems have kept at least some of those countries from fulfilling their promises to date.
The WHO, which has also been promised more than 150 million doses by four vaccine manufacturers, hopes to start shipping vaccine to recipient countries soon.
The Canadian spokesperson said it’s not yet clear what form Canada’s donation would take.
“We’re looking at our options currently,” the source said. “Within a couple of weeks we should come to some sort of resolution of where we’re going with our international … contributions.”
There are a couple of options. The federal government could give the WHO a financial contribution, something the agency needs to cover the costs of distributing the vaccine. Or it could divert some of the country’s unneeded vaccine doses to the Geneva-based agency.
