The COVID-19 vaccine rollout debacle: how did we get here?

The COVID-19 vaccine rollout campaign illustrates how the government reverted to bounded rationality in its decision-making throughout the crisis, being reactive instead of being proactive. As a result, at the time this is written, Canada ranks 42nd in the world in vaccination rate.

As vaccines were developed, the Canadian government, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, chose to apply a scattergun approach, an understandable strategy due to the inherent uncertainty in vaccine development. It is questionable, however, why it would bet heavily on a Chinese vaccine during the time of heightened tensions between Canada and China. Moreover, Canada came late to the dance and negotiated badly with the leading candidates (namely, Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca), writes Ramy Elitzur. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY RAMY ELITZUR

April 19, 2021

In 1957, Herbert Simon came up with the idea of “Bounded Rationality," for which he eventually won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1978. Bounded rationality states that, because of cognitive limitations, we do not make decisions rationally, but only try to get by or manage.

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