Today our government announced a plan which would see the majority of Canadians vaccinated for COVID-19 by September of 2021.

This is an unacceptably slow timeline.

Thus far our federal government has spent over $230 billion dollars (over $6,100 for every single Canadian) on pandemic related expenses. That doesn't account for expenditures by other levels of government, lost tax revenue, loss of business and personal income. It doesn't take into account the loss of life and freedom that we've experienced.

A slow vaccine rollout will pose unacceptable societal costs far beyond the costs of any vaccination program.

To put these costs in perspective, according to The Guardian, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech are expected to profit a total of $15 billion worldwide in 2021 from sales of 1.3 billion doses of vaccine costing approximately $19.50/dose.  This is a trivial amount compared to what we've already borne. A multibillion dollar incentive program for early delivery of millions of doses of vaccine would allow manufactures to expand production, and yet be highly cost effective for Canadians. For example we might offer a $15 billion bonus to obtain 80 million doses (2 doses/Canadian, with a little to spare) under the condition that they are delivered by the end of February 2021.  

Please join me in urging our government to create an incentive program for rapid vaccine delivery and put and end to COVID-19.