Canada has been lagging behind with vaccinating their citizens, but it’s because Canada doesn’t have any manufacturing companies to produce the COVID-19 vaccine. Instead, they have been relying on other countries that are producing the vaccine and bidding on doses, but have not been supplied with any from the U.S. Manufacturers in the U.S. have withheld selling the vaccine to Canada, even though we share a border. Since the U.S. has a larger problem with the numbers of cases, the government has decided to focus on just citizens first, but this may cause tensions with Canadians.
The U.S. is, understandably, focusing on citizens first, but Canada is our neighbor, and our economies are tightly interconnected. Canada is willing to buy doses from the U.S., but our refusal may put strains on diplomatic relations. Canadians were expecting our help since we share a border, but now they’ve been forced to turn towards Europe and Asia for help. Because our relations are so close, it’s important that Canada has enough doses to control the pandemic and immunize citizens. Their lagging could put us at risk too, especially if Canada’s economy also decreases. If Canada remains at a huge disadvantage with numbers, the border may have to remain closed.
It is in America’s geopolitical interest to also protect our neighbors. Their health situation, although not as grave as ours, still affects us. We should be trying to help both our economies, and the biggest way is by opening the border again. America has the resources, and our countries are so interconnected, that by helping them, we are helping ourselves too.