The first COVID -19 vaccine rollout began in December of 2020. The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses for someone to be considered fully vaccinated. How countries distributed the vaccine faced many different similarities and contrasts due to different health care systems, governments, and how much each country can get their hands on the vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine will require two doses for someone to be considered fully vaccinated. In Canada, they have a universal health care system. Canada also has a federal government. The Canadian health care system is autonomous, with provinces and regions operating it. For their vaccine distribution process, the central government collaborated with their regional governments. Ottawa is playing a large role in directing this process. The United States has decided to approach the rollout process a little bit differently than Canada.
The United States does not have a universal health care system. The Trump administration postponed many of the strategic decisions to the states. The government saw no need to distribute the vaccines based on who needed it most, but more so on the population. It was the states’ decision on how to divide doses between their hospitals and clinics. The CDC created a committee to make a priority list, which started with medical workers. I believe now the list consists of people with auto-immune diseases and even teachers. Not all states are distributing the vaccine the same way and approaching the situation differently. Luckily, Americans do not have to pay anything out of their pockets for the vaccination. The vaccine is covered by health insurance, and for those who are not insured, the Provider relief fund will be covering the costs at the Medicare reimbursement rates.
The COVID vaccine is being widely distributed in the United Kingdom as well. The UK has a universal health care system as Canada does, but a different government system. Britain is leading London’s operation due to a powerful central government and a National Health Service that encompasses all of its citizens. Their government appointed the 50 hospitals that eventually administered the vaccine and made sure that the vaccine was prepared; they had determined how much each one would get and have drawn up guidelines on what order citizens will get.