Premier Andrew Furey says Opposition health critic David Brazil is “playing politics with health” in comparing the relatively sluggish rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in Newfoundland and Labrador compared to the rest of the country.
Brazil pointed to an online vaccine tracker that uses provincial and federal sources to compare the number of vaccines distributed in Canada.
“The Furey Liberals and their federal counterparts are dragging their heels on vaccine distribution in Newfoundland and Labrador,” Brazil said in a news release Monday. “Not only does it put our vulnerable population more at risk of exposure, it will continue to harm our economic recovery.”
The Progressive Conservative MHA said the province was second last in Canada in percentage of doses administered, although the tracker put Newfoundland ahead of Manitoba, Nova Scotia and the territories by late Monday afternoon.
“Our population is older than the rest of the country, with higher risk of complications from the virus due to the prevalence of diabetes and other comorbidities throughout our population,” Brazil stated. “On top of that, our Indigenous populations remain at high risk to the virus. It’s unacceptable to be behind the pack on such a critical matter."
Furey said Brazil’s comments are inaccurate and misleading.
For example, he said administration of the 2,400 doses of Moderna vaccine in Labrador only started Monday, primarily because Indigenous authorities faced language and cultural issues.
“Today was the first day that they felt they were able to, given the language translation issues and other cultural issues that we fully respect.”
He also said the province’s excellent epidemiology has given authorities the leeway to hold on to some vaccines to give as second doses — something more hard hit jurisdiction are not doing.
“If we’re going to compare apples to apples, we need to really compare apples to apples, and I don’t think it’s fair to compare us, for example, to P.E.I. that doesn’t have the significant challenges of geography that we do,” Furey said.
“We have to realize that it was science, not politics, that got us here in the first place.”
Peter Jackson is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter covering health for The Telegram.
@pjackson_nl
