CANADA LEtter.

The large batches of Pfizer vaccines that landed in Canada this week from a plant in Belgium may represent a turning point in the country’s vaccination roll out, even as winter storms delayed the shipments’ arrival.

When Pfizer and Moderna reduced shipments of their vaccines to Canada because of manufacturing issues — and then Pfizer briefly stopped shipping — the companies set off a nationwide wave of hand-wringing and a torrent of heated political rhetoric.

For my article about Canada, published on Thursday, I spoke with people in a variety of fields including vaccine development, epidemiology, infection control and medical supply chains.

They also cited two factors in the slow start: the lack of an established vaccine maker headquartered in Canada and the country’s modest vaccine manufacturing capability.

But in testimony this week at Parliamentary committee, Mark Lievonen, the vice chairman of the federal vaccine task force, said that there was never a Canadian manufacturing option that could have sped up deliveries.

And in earlier testimony, Anita Anand, the minister whose department made the vaccine deals, said that the government was unable last year to persuade any of the major vaccine makers to set up shop in Canada.

What now remains to be seen is if Pfizer and Moderna are able to continue scaling up production and how many of the five other companies Canada placed orders with get their vaccines to market.

After reading Dan Bilefsky’s Canada Letter last week about travel restrictions between Canada and the United States, a number of you wrote and asked why people who have been vaccinated aren’t allowed to cross the border into Canada again or be exempted from Canada’s quarantine measures.

While Denmark has proposed a digital vaccination passport and the International Air Transport Association has a digital vaccine travel pass, there isn’t a broad international agreement about handling this issue.

Two tech giants made moves this week that may be a preview of what’s to come when Canada introduces laws to regulate digital giants, likely later this year?