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Justin Trudeau on March 24, 2022, at the NATO Extraordinary SUMMIT. Brussels, BelgiumGints Ivuskans/Shutterstock

OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — After pressure to take action from the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government announced it has secured a “foreign supply” of children’s pain and fever medication to combat the nationwide shortage.

While Trudeau himself initially blamed “climate change” and “the pandemic” for the shortage, in a statement on Monday, Health Canada said it “secured foreign supply of children’s acetaminophen that will be available for sale at retail and in community pharmacies in the coming weeks.” 

The amount to be imported will increase supply available to consumers and will help address the immediate situation,” continued the federal agency, adding that there will also be an “exceptional importation of infant and children’s ibuprofen and acetaminophen to supply hospitals in Canada.

The importation of ibuprofen has occurred, and distribution has begun.”

For months Canadian parents have had to endure severe shortages of Tylenol and other fever and pain relief medications for their children and infants, despite there being no such shortages for adult formulations of the common drugs.  

The shortages come at the same time there has been a reported increase in childhood respiratory illness. Various experts have said the increase in illness is the result of the government-imposed restrictions placed on the public during COVID, which in some cases had children in isolation or lockdown for weeks or even months at a time.

These lockdown policies – which in Canada included lengthy school closures – prevented kids’ from interacting with others, thereby weakening their immune systems, explain the experts.  

Leader of the CPC, Pierre Poilievre, blasted the Trudeau government yesterday for the shortages. 

On Twitter yesterday, Trudeau, who is not in Canada at the moment as he is at the G20 summit in Indonesia, said that kids’ pain medication will be “available for sale at stores and in pharmacies as soon as possible.” 

Trudeau’s statement drew a slew of online criticism, with many blaming him directly for the occurrence of the shortage in the first place.

 

Instead of recognizing the lack of medication could be correlated with the uptick in childhood hospitalizations, Trudeau has continued to push vaccination as the “single best thing Canadians can do to prevent our hospitals from getting overwhelmed.”

Earlier in the month, Trudeau, when pressed by the Conservative opposition on the kid’s pain medication shortage, said that supply chain disruptions were because of “climate change.” 

However, a recent report noted how desperate Canadian parents have been crossing into the United States solely to buy children’s pain medication for their sick kids, and how no such shortages have been reported in America of Mexico.

According to Mina Tadrous, who is a drug policy expert and assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, the shortage of children’s pain medication includes factors such as Canada’s labeling laws as well as lack of raw materials for domestic production and supply chain issues.

“These supply chains are global, there’s drugs being made in one place and being distributed around the world,” said Tadrous as reported by CTV 

“They have to label them and make boxes and there’s probably some drugs flowing from one factory to another factory to a third factory.” 

In Canada, all products sold in stores must be in French and English. This means stores are not allowed to import extra products from the United States or other nations to fill backlogs. 

Health Canada’s recent announcement of a foreign supply of children’s acetaminophen means for now at least, label laws on the emergency supplies of products will not apply. 

However, the government did note that “All information related to cautions and warnings, dosing directions, ingredients, and other important details will be made available in both English and French to ensure parents and caregivers clearly understand what medication they are using and how to give to their children.” 

Political commentator for the Western Standard, Cory Morgan, was blunt in his assessment on why there have been shortages, blaming supply chain issues caused by prolonged lockdowns.  

“The crackpots who supported shutting the world down on and off for the last couple years are now howling about rampant inflation and supply chain issues impacting things such as the supply of children’s Tylenol. What the [expletive] did you clowns think would happen,” tweeted Morgan 

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