American media personality Tucker Carlson slammed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for saying that high vaccination rates will not guarantee an end to lockdowns.
Speaking on his show on Fox News Tuesday evening, Carlson took aim at comments Trudeau made earlier that day in Question Period.
“The leader of Canada just explained on television that according to the science, the vaccine doesn’t stop COVID. Either the coronavirus shot works or it doesn’t, but the shot cannot be simultaneously highly effective, but not restore peoples’ lives to normal; that doesn’t make sense,” Carlson said Tuesday.
“They didn’t tell you to avoid water fountains after getting the polio vaccine. They don’t need to tell you that because the polio vaccine works.”
Earlier that day, Trudeau justified continued lockdowns and mask restrictions, saying “vaccinations are not enough to keep us safe.”
Trudeau doubled down when asked to defend Canada’s poor vaccine rollout, saying that a high vaccination rate will not guarantee a return to normal life.
“I think it’s important to remember that vaccination alone, even being well advanced in vaccinations, doesn’t necessarily lead to an ability to ease public restrictions,” Trudeau said.
The Trudeau government originally based its vaccine procurement strategy around a Chinese-Canadian collaboration that has not yet produced a viable vaccine. With no domestic production of approved vaccines, Canada has been forced to rely on US and EU firms which have been slow to ship to Canada.
Canada ranks 45th in the world for percentage of its population vaccinated, with the United States’ vaccination rate more than twice as high.
Trudeau has also been criticized by CNN host Jake Tapper after he suggested CNN’s coverage of Canada’s slow vaccine rollout was not based on facts
