The Public Health Agency of Canada yesterday claimed it saved 800,000 Canadian lives due to its vaccination program. The claim was made as MPs questioned auditors’ findings that the Agency wasted $1 billion of the $5 billion it spent on COVID-19 shots, according to Blacklock's Reporter..“Wastage is really inevitable in any immunization program,” Harpreet Kochhar, president of the Agency, testified at the House of Commons public accounts committee. “When we started initially the vaccination campaign the unavoidable wastage was around 3%”.“Do we have data on the number of lives saved in per capita terms if we compare Canada and the United States?” asked Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos (London North Centre, ON). “We have done a study in which we modeled and almost 800,000 lives were saved,” replied Kochhar..“1.9 million hospitalizations were avoided and 34 million COVID-19 cases were prevented by making sure there was early access to vaccines and we had public health measures in place,” said Kochhar. He did not elaborate. The Health Agency estimates almost 51,000 Canadians died of COVID and 4.6 million were known to be infected..Auditors in a report last December 6 said the Agency wasted about $1 billion worth of vaccine doses. “The Public Health Agency was unsuccessful in its efforts to minimize vaccine wastage,” said an Auditor General’s report COVID-19 Vaccines..The health department bought 169 million doses. Of those 124.9 million were delivered and 84.1 million were used to vaccinate Canadians. “The Public Health Agency ended up with a large surplus of doses,” wrote auditors. Millions were date-expired and destroyed at a loss of an average $30 per dose, they said..Conservative MP Stephen Ellis (Cumberland-Colchester, NS) yesterday was dismayed with Agency self-congratulation on its pandemic management. “Shame, shame, shame,” said Ellis. “Shame. I have to say, shame on you.”.“Not only did we lose a billion dollars, but realistically what we were asking people to do here was keep track of things and distribute a product at a cold temperature,” said Ellis. “That happens all the time in this world. I guess I find it very, very difficult for anyone to say this was a successful program.”.“It almost feels like we’re pushing a false narrative with this study of how successful the government was,” said Conservative MP Kelly McCauley (Edmonton West, AB). The MP noted from the early licensing of vaccines in 2021 Canada’s rate of immunization was a fraction of those in the United States or United Kingdom..Liberal MP Brenda Shanahan (Chateauguay-Lacolle, QC) told the committee that criticism of pandemic management should be dismissed. “Quite frankly the hundreds of thousands of lives that were saved to me is a success,” said Shanahan..“If we’re in a war and we win the war, are we then looking at the number of bullets we used and say, well, maybe we used too many bullets?” said Shanahan. “I mean, what is the context here in this emergency situation?”
