Canada rejects plan to line up residents along the US border to get vaccinated with surplus shots from Michigan

Natalie Musumeci
Updated ·2 min read

  • Canada rejected a plan to get locals vaccinated inside a US border tunnel using a surplus of COVID-19 shots from Michigan.

  • A Canadian mayor proposed a plan to have residents jabbed inside the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.

  • "Our government will not let this happen," said Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens.

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Oh, Canada...

The Great White North has reportedly turned down a quirky plan for Canadians to get vaccinated against the coronavirus inside a US border tunnel using a surplus of hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 shots from Michigan.

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens of Ontario had proposed a plan to get residents jabbed inside the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel in the Detroit River, the Associated Press reported.

The idea was to have Canadians stand along the border tunnel where a white stripe was painted to mark the border and have healthcare workers inoculate them along the border itself.

"We're not trying to send a man to the moon here. We're using the infrastructure to accomplish a shared goal," Dilkens said, according to the AP. "This is a sensible, reasonable alternative to vaccines heading to the landfill."

But now the plan, Dilkens said, "is dead."

"Our government will not let this happen," said the mayor.

The Canada Border Services Agency shot down the proposal, telling Dilkens that the makeshift tunnel clinic could cause a disturbance to traffic and have "significant security implications," the AP reported.

Additionally, the Public Health Agency of Canada explained that problems could arise if the person administering the vaccine shot accidentally reached across the tunnel's white stripe into the country.

"A vaccine cannot be imported into Canadian space without the express consent of Health Canada," agency executive vice president Kathy Thompson said, according to the AP.

Michigan has 500,000 vaccines that are set to expire in early August, the news outlet reported, citing a state health department spokeswoman.

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