RNAO is considering the question of a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine. The following article from Sheena Cruickshank reflects our current thinking on the matter. Basically, we believe it is too early to launch a vaccine booster program in Canada, except for immunodeficient persons and adults 80 years and older.

The government announced today an earlier reopening of the province to step 3. The news did not come as a surprise given the successful vaccination rollout and decreased hospitalization rates. In several media interviews I expressed that although the five day advanced reopening is not a major concern, the lack of capacity restrictions in indoor activities is.

This week we consider the shocking status of vaccine inequity from a global perspective. World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said recently that the world is at risk of 'vaccine apartheid'. The WHO chief highlighted that at least 63 million doses of vaccines have been shipped to 124 countries and economies, but they represent just 0.5 per cent of the combined population of those nations. He also noted that the basic problem of vaccine inequity was a lack of sharing by the wealthy countries that have accumulated most of the vaccine supplies.

This article addresses the shocking contrast between Canada's declarations of concern with the global distribution of vaccines, and the poor reality of its actions. Joel Lexchin, Professor Emeritus of Health Policy and Management, York University, Emergency Physician at University Health Network, Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto tackles this question.

As we reach enormously successful levels of COVID-19 inoculation in Canada and other rich countries, the disparities with the rest of the world become starker. This article considers the enormous cost in lives of leaving most of the global population unvaccinated. It draws lessons on how we can do better from the effort to provide lifesaving drugs for HIV-AIDS in the 1990s. This June 22 article is by Maria De Jesus, Associate Professor and Research Fellow at the Center on Health, Risk, and Society, American University School of International Service.

Join us and dozens of MPs from across party lines! Call on Prime Minister Trudeau to stay true to his word and ensure that COVID-19 vaccines are made available to all people around the world.

Even during the COVID crisis in Ontario, we should not forget that this is a global calamity. The massive third wave in Ontario is driven by COVID variants of concern that appeared in other parts of the world where the virus ran unchecked. In the most literal sense, we are all in this together. Unfortunately, we don’t behave as if that is the case. With the goal of increasing our awareness and actions on COVID-19 global justice, I am posting another article, dated March 10, by Michael Toole, a Professor of International Health at the Burnet Institute in Australia.

Today our focus is on Cuba, a Caribbean island with about 11 million population and a very different economic and political regime. Canadians know Cuba well through their tourist visits – more than one million in 2019. Today, we are interested in a different facet of Cuban society – the community focus of its health system and their success, so far, in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. There are important insights for us in Ontario.