Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens continues to fight against federal red tape to have COVID-19 vaccine doses from Michigan administered to Windsor Essex residents.
Dilkens says there have been reports of over 35,000 expired Pfizer doses dumped in Michigan due to lack of demand. He has had conversations with numerous pharmacists in Michigan willing to administer those to Canadians at the Windsor-Detroit tunnel.
“Those were doses that could have gone into the arms of Canadians. I appreciate that there are a host of issues that would need to be resolved that would make this sort of international inoculation effort possible,” Dilkens told the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health.
On Monday, Dilkens received a letter from the Public Health Agency of Canada outlining the reasons the doses cannot legally be administered to Canadians at the border crossing. The letter noted health insurance and illegal importation concerns as reasons the clinic should not go forward.
“If the U.S. nurse or pharmacist reaches across the border to administer it to a person in Canada, that is considered importation of product and requires an expression of no objection from Health Canada,” reads the letter addressed to Dilkens.
Dilkens believes if he had approval from the Canadian federal government there would be a clear path forward to receive approval from US counterparts to get the vaccines in the arms of residents in Windsor-Essex.
“The part that is difficult for me to understand is that there have been pathways that have been found, I’m not asking for something unique here. There are pathways that have been found at the Carway between Alberta and Montana,” said Dilkens. “I am trying to facilitate the same type of thing here in my community because the vaccines are being offered.”
It will take months before the Federal Government’s supply of vaccines reach the Provinces and U.S. surplus vaccines are being offered TODAY. That’s why I’ve urged the Feds to make the right choice for Canadians. pic.twitter.com/UoW6CfRa9k
— Drew Dilkens (@drewdilkens) June 7, 2021
Over 11,500 Windsor Essex residents have joined Dilken's waiting list to receive a second dose.