{"id":70114,"date":"2020-10-08T13:29:21","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T17:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=70114"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:37:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:37:20","slug":"covid-19-vaccine-task-force","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/covid-19-vaccine-task-force\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force needs better transparency about potential conflicts of interest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Canada\u2019s COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force needs better transparency about potential conflicts of interest\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Hopefully there will soon be a vaccine for COVID-19. In fact, there may be more than one. Once there is, Canada will probably spend hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, on the vaccine or vaccines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August, the federal government signed deals<\/a> with two United States vaccines producers, Novavax and Johnson & Johnson, to purchase tens of millions of doses of their vaccines should they prove to be successful. In September, further deals were concluded with Pfizer, Moderna<\/a>, GlaxoSmithKline\/Sanofi<\/a> and AstraZeneca<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public acceptance of any vaccine will depend on how confident the public is that the best decisions have been made about which vaccines to ultimately use. If it looks like decisions are based on advice from people with conflicts of interest with vaccine makers then confidence and uptake of the vaccine could collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all want the government to proactively make decisions so that once a vaccine is approved, it can be quickly delivered to Canadians. But how are those decisions being made? Back in June, the National Research Council<\/a> set up an 18-member COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force<\/a> charged with, among other things, prioritizing vaccine projects seeking support for activities in Canada, and identifying opportunities to enhance business connectivity globally to secure access to commercially sponsored vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n