Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government will spend more than $1 billion to help develop, test and manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine, as well as to determine how widely the virus has spread through Canada.
The cash announced today is on top of $275 million in research funding the Liberals announced in March at the outset of the pandemic.
Most of the new money is aimed at funding vaccine development and clinical trials, including $600 million over two years through a federal innovation fund that the government says could help the country’s biomanufacturing sector.
“These drugs will take months to develop, test, fabricate and roll out,” Trudeau says.
Smaller amounts will go to tracking and identifying different strains of the virus and the different health impacts it has had on different patients.
Trudeau also says the government will create a task force of public health experts that includes Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, and Dr. David Naylor, who has advised Liberal and Conservative governments on health and science issues.
The task force will be asked to oversee country-wide blood test surveys to get a better handle on potential immunity and vulnerabilities in Canada.
Public health experts say mass testing will be required to detect who is carrying the disease without showing symptoms, to prevent them spreading it to others and triggering a second surge in infections.
Canada is currently testing fewer than 20,000 people a day. Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said Wednesday that 60,000 a day would be an initial target to aim for.
She also pointed out that reliable serology tests are needed to detect who has acquired an immune response to the virus. That will help determine who can safely return to work and when the population has developed “herd immunity.”
“Serologic testing offers the opportunity to get a handle on what the level of immunity may be in Canada,” Tam said.
“That’s definitely one of the key objectives. Our lab is working hard at validating the serologic tests that are being presented. Internationally we’re aware that some of them don’t work so we want to make sure the ones that we have actually are effective and can detect the antibody response in the Canadian population.”
The Canadian Press
