Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government will spend $1.1 billion to help develop, test and create a COVID-19 vaccine.
It will include $115 million for research into vaccines and treatments being developed in hospitals and universities, $662 million for clinical trials in Canada, and $350 million to expand national testing and modelling for COVID-19.
“The better we understand this virus, its spread and its impact on different people, the better we can fight it and eventually defeat it,” Trudeau said on Thursday.
He also announced the creation of a new COVID-19 immunity task force that will focus on serology testing — blood-based tests that are used to determine if someone has been exposed to the virus already.
As many as one million Canadians will be tested as part of the study over the next two years, as Trudeau says the task force will work to determine how many people have COVID-19 beyond those who already have been tested, whether people who are have recovered are immune and, if so, how long that immunity might last.
“Testing must increase even further before we can reopen and restart our normal activities as a country,” he said.
He also warned that once a vaccine is developed, there will be competition to mass produce it, which may lead to similar bottlenecks like the ones governments have experienced in trying to secure personal protection equipment (PPE) for medical staff.
That’s why it’s important to establish the capacity to mass-produce vaccines here in Canada now, he said.
“We know it may be a long while before a vaccine,” Trudeau said. “There are discussions around treatments for COVID-19 that might work as well as a vaccine.”
“We’ve been waiting for and looking for and searching for a vaccine for AIDS for decades now, and it still hasn’t come, but there are treatments that mean quality of life for people.”
The money announced today is on top of $275 million in research funding that was announced in March. It was later supplemented by a new strategic innovation fund, which provided another $192 million to companies and research institutions working on new drugs and vaccines.
The government has also provided $52 million in funding through national granting councils to almost 100 research teams across the country.
Canadian Military to help out at Long Term Care Homes
The Prime Minister also said that the Canadian military will respond to provincial requests for assistance at long-term care facilities.
“Our women and men in uniform will step up with the valour and courage they have always shown,” Trudeau said, noting that Canada is failing ‘our parents and grandparents.’
“But this is not a long-term solution. In Canada, we shouldn’t have soldiers taking care of seniors. Going forward, in the weeks and months to come, we will all have to ask tough questions about how it came to this.”
The comments today follow requests by Ontario and Quebec for soldiers to help long-term care facilities that have been hit hard by COVID-19.
The military deployed 130 troops to help five long-term care facilities in Quebec last week, and it is now assessing what more can be done to respond to these requests.