Accepting 1.9M vaccines from COVAX is ‘morally wrong’: Stephen Lewis

Former UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS Stephen Lewis discusses the ethics of using vaccines intended for low-income countries.

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41 comments

  1. Surprise! Drug companies are running the Trans Lobby and Stonewall as well, infiltrating governments, public services, education.

  2. Without the patents do these companies keep their liability protections? How about any company that makes this with no patent?

    1. Government’s signed agreements saying they will take the legal liability meaning it goes bad it’s to bad you sue your government

    1. Canada doesn’t manufacture vaccines, that’s why.
      We make steel, agriculture, and oil/gas. We don’t make this stuff.
      Our economy is dependent on other nations for something like mass vaccinations.
      What our Prime Minister SHOULD have done, is taken into account order delays from Europe, and started building manufacturing/distribution sites 6 months ago.
      Instead, our genius Prime Minister orders 3x our population worth of vaccines, and guess what? Its nowhere to be seen. LOL.

    2. @Ethan Ash And we use a “point system” for immigration so that we can strip the most qualified immigrants from developing countries (who could use their skill at home) to support the standard of living of Canadians who are not longer economically productive enough to support their own standard of living.

  3. Trudeau could put forth a very convincing argument stating that COVAX should provide vaccines to countries of inept leadership so as not to punish the citizens of those countries for having exercised extremely poor judgement in their last election (and also the one prior to that).

    1. @dominic barbucci Who would you prefer? Conservatives botched Ontario under Ford. The economy would have tanked in Canada without the aid. You’re ridiculous.

    2. @Debbie Allen Nobody from any party has questioned or criticized the need for federal government economic aid under these circumstances. The criticisms have to do with running large deficits leading up to this, and the nature of the response coming out.

  4. What about Sputnik V and Cuban Sovereign 02?? Or maybe Canada like Americans put sanctions on those countries that they don’t have chance to make some money

    1. You could also ask what of the DIY biohackers who last March used CRISPR to make untested mRNA vaccines and posted their recipes on the Internet. Our approval process requires the pharmaceutical to apply for approval and present their trial data to substantiate the application, did Russia or Cuba apply for approval?

  5. Has anyone told this guy that what Canada is doing is exactly what Covax is designed to do? If countries don’t do what Canada is doing, Covax will fail and poor countries will get nothing.

    1. @Russ Howatt I spent a couple of minutes reading the Covax website to understand how it works. Maybe you should do the same.

    2. @Guy Montag you don’t put a $50 in the church collection plate and take a $20 out for yourself. Stop running cover for Trudeau’s incompetence!

    3. @Russ Howatt Your analogy doesn’t make sense. This is literally how Covax works. Rich countries buy vaccines through their program and donate some of their vaccines to poor countries. If you want a more accurate analogy, Canada just went grocery shopping and dropped half the groceries in the charity bin on the way out the door. Seriously, you’re arguing from ignorance. Just read the Covax website which will explain to you what I just said but in better words.

  6. The COVAX buy two doses, get one and donate one program was meant to be able to negotiate better deals for all of COVAX. Drawing on COVAX isn’t morally reprehensible but unilaterally ordering independent of COVAX is, you need to be asking why wasn’t all of our orders via COVAX other than we wanted to be ahead of the line. Also of the G7 only Canada and Japan signed up for the full buy two doses, get one and donate one program, other members went with the partial membership of only donating to the effort instead of full participation to help COVAX negotiate better pricing.

  7. Mr. Lewis is it not morally wrong to have more Canadians die if we don’t use this acceptable and viable option ?

  8. Who does Stephen Lewis think he is.I as a Canadian citizen who doesn’t mind helping other countries out..We have as much right to vaccinate our citizens.I wonder where Stephen Lewis lives.does he live in canada?

  9. Canada is using COVAX exactly as it was intended. There are two programs, one for low income countries, the other is for anybody who paid into it. Canada paid into both.

  10. Accepting Justin Trudeau as a continued Prime Minister is “MORALLY WRONG!!!…as for the botched attempts for acquiring vaccines for Canada…well…it speaks for itself!

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