The longer Canadians must wait to get vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus, the more they are at risk of getting infected, hospitalized, needing intensive care, suffering lasting ailments or die and the greater are the economic and emotional costs from lockdowns and other restrictions on normal life.
Canadians are facing long delays in getting vaccinated. On May 10, 2021, only 2.7 percent of the population was
fully immunized and 34.1 percent had received one shot.
A popular comparison of countries’ efforts to vaccinate their
populations uses the percent of the population that can be immunized with the
number of vaccination doses acquired. Canada’s 10.1 million vaccines were
sufficient for 21.5 percent of the population and place it in 30th
place in the world ranking, a position that has persisted for many weeks since
all countries on the list continue to receive more vaccines.
On this list ahead of Canada are the United States and the United
Kingdom with vaccines sufficient to immunize 40.9 and 39.9 percent of their
populations, respectively. Remarkable is Israel’s 59 percent.
What explains the different record of these countries? In the case of the
U.S. and U.K. it can be found primarily in their ability to get domestic
producers of vaccines to ramp up production quickly and to administer them
promptly to their populations.
This explanation does not work for Canada and Israel, which do not have major
domestic producers of vaccines. Nor does the difference in their capacity
needed to buy and administer vaccines offer a good explanation. Canada with a
2017 per capita income of $46,510 should have done better than Israel with a
per capita income of $38,868.
The most likely explanation is found in Israel’s superior strategy to
negotiate the purchase and delivery time of vaccines produced in other
countries. This strategy resulted in the import of its first vaccines in
December 2020 and thereafter in numbers large enough to create the country’s
outstanding record. Canada, on the other hand, received its first batch of
vaccines three months later in March 2021, initially in relatively small but
later growing numbers.
The responsibility for the purchase of vaccines in both countries is
that of their prime ministers who appoint the teams for the design of an
acquisition strategy and approve its execution. So, if we want to know why the rate of
vaccination is so much better in Israel than Canada, we must look at the
qualifications for the job provided by their respective educational background
and work experiences.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earned BA degrees in English from McGill
University and in Education from the University of British Columbia. He started
but did not complete studies in Engineering and Environment Geography.
His work experience consists of teaching French and mathematics in high
school and snowboarding at Whistler. He spent some time working for media and
charities before his election to parliament in 2008. In 2013 he became leader
of the Liberal Party and led it to victory in the 2015 election.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, earned a B.Sc.
degree in Architecture and an M.Sc. in Business Management from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also studied political science at MIT
and Harvard University.
His work experience includes time
spent on active duty in the military and employment in the private sector and
government. Israel’s uncommon electoral system caused him to serve as prime
minister several different times after his first election to that post in 1996.
It is obvious that the educational and work background of Netanyahu is
much better suited than that of Trudeau for heading efforts to quickly obtain a
large supply of vaccines from suppliers in the private sector. However, detailed
information about the different contracts negotiated by the two leaders is not available
and may never be known, given the confidential nature of such contracts.
Canada provided some limited information about the contracts it has
signed and why vaccines arrived as late and in small numbers. This information was
used mainly to blame suppliers and unforeseen developments for the problem.
On the other hand, some interesting details of the contract negotiated
by Netanyahu are available and reveal good business acumen. It offered to pay
premium prices for the delivery of the first vaccines approved by health
authorities and coming off the production lines. It also offered material
assistance in testing the safety and effectiveness of vaccines in the
development stage.
It is highly likely that the benefits of Israel’s policies in terms of
health and economic outcomes are large and more than pay for the higher prices
paid and for the cost testing assistance.
It will be interesting to see what educational and work experience is of
the Prime Minister Canadians will choose in the next election.
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