Two world-leading poverty alleviation organizations have criticized Canada’s decision to vaccinate the COVID-19 vaccine from an international fund designed to help poor countries.

Oxfam Canada and ONE Campaign say it is wrong for the federal government to agree to receive about 1.9 million doses of vaccine from the COVAX facility by the end of June.

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The COVAX Vaccine Fund “always” aims to support vaccination of Canadians, the federal government says.

Canada is one of the major donors to COVAX, a new international partnership under the World Health Organization established last year to deliver billions of expensive vaccines to poor countries that cannot afford vaccination.

In return, donor countries are allowed to receive small doses of vaccine for their own use, but Trudeau’s Liberal Party is facing dose shortages from two major international biotechnology companies. They are being attacked by political opponents for doing so.

Oxfam Canada’s head of policy, Diana Sarossi, said Canada’s acceptance of the COVAX vaccine was wrong due to domestic political pressure and ultimately harmed poor countries.

“Canada should not be vaccinated from poor countries to ease domestic political pressure. One or two million doses will solve Canada’s vaccination challenges. It will harm the poorest and most estranged people elsewhere in the world, “Saroshi said in a statement.

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“If Canada has already purchased enough to vaccinate the entire population more than four times, then purchasing more vaccines is not a viable solution.”

Canada’s secretary-general of the ONE campaign, Sarossi and Stuart Hickox, have urged Canada and other governments to force vaccine makers to waive their intellectual property rights so that vaccines can be replicated faster and more affordably. It was.

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Canada will be able to increase its vaccine dose by 1.1 million doses by March through the COVAX Sharing Program.

Mr. Hikox, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should join French President Emmanuel Macron and 100 other countries seeking a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights to the COVID-19 vaccine at the World Trade Organization. Said.

“There is no doubt that this will make Canada look bad. What is lost in this enthusiasm is the fact that COVAX is operating as designed and Canada is one of the largest donors. Once the vaccine rollout is stable, Canada needs to announce a clear strategy on how to share additional government-sponsored vaccines, “Hickox said.

Conservative Prime Minister Erin O’Toole declined to ask if he would refuse to take COVAX on Thursday.

Instead, O’Toole said he would never have caused the current shortage if he had been in charge 10 months ago. He said the fact that Canada was immersed in COVAX was a sign that the government had developed an inadequate plan to vaccinate Canadians.

“Canada needed to make sure that it had a domestic supply that would ensure that it would be vaccinated quickly so that it could restart and move the economy together,” O’Toole said.

Only then did he say Canada should play its part in helping developed countries.

“We hope the vaccine will be deployed here as soon as possible,” O’Toole said.

Green leader Annamie Paul said that just because Canada can get a dose of the COVAX vaccine is not correct. She states that this decision is having a negative impact on Canada’s international reputation.

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Poverty Control Group Condemns Canada for Withdrawal from COVAX Vaccine Program-National