While vaccine procurement is easy to criticise, we're in the same boat as everyone except the UK and US.
The UK only looks good a) because they have been going nuts with the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine (it's home grown, so almost patriotic to get there) and b) they had a huge wave around Christmas that put them in lockdown for months and motivated vaccine uptake. They were among the worst in Europe for ages beforehand.
The US has put the screws to Pfizer and Moderna and used their purchasing power to dictate them getting the lions share of doses. It sucks for everyone else, but that's what you get when your economy is (for now) still the biggest. If I were American, I'd be upset with anything less. All the other mid-tier countries (Canada, most of Europe, Japan, etc.) are struggling to get enough Pfizer and Moderna doses.
Inexplicably, Chile was apparently up there with Israel (who volunteered data to get to the head of the line) and some wealthy oil states, though I'm not sure why.
Politically, the real beef I have is with the Ontario response, which has been wishy-washy and consistently two weeks late on almost everything, which only results in a much bigger eventual need to lock down because of letting everything spread. Everyone who was paying attention to Italy could see what was coming right at the beginning last March, and while the BC premier was telling families to stay home for the holiday, Dougie was telling people to go away and have fun. Then it was always wait until it was too late, then respond. Every single expert was screaming about locking down again at the beginning of December, but instead they waited until Christmas to do anything meaningful. Even worse, the same folks were warning about the third wave with the new variants AT THE SAME TIME AS THE PROVINCE WAS REOPENING. I'm no expert, but the same pattern has repeated over and over and I have been able to predict it every time (not because I'm smart or psychic, but because I read articles quoting experts, unlike the provincial government apparently).
Part of the problem is the goofy Scrappy-Doo home spun platitudes ("I'll be on them like an 800 lb gorilla, Scoob!") in place of meaningful information. Their provincial medical officer is a terrible communicator, and awful at getting points across about why compliance is so necessary etc. The mixed messages about zones, open for business, etc are impossible to decipher. For example, part of the reason big box stores are considered safer is the added air volume and powerful air exchangers can make for a less risky shared space than a random small business with zero info about fresh air introduction. But nobody is communicating this, leaving people to puzzle out the logic. Insisting on allowing restaurants to be open for seating is another mystery, as the overall cost ends up so much more than just keeping them closed. We're not contact tracing at all, and minimal new information has been released about how things are being spread for months.
It doesn't help that the border has been porous at best, introducing global variants with alarming speed. Part of the reason Australia and New Zealand have been so successful has been their ability to control incoming passengers and stop the selfish idiots from dodging quarantine. To me, that's where the feds have been truly culpable, with similar half measures and little real action.
As it stands, we're in a bad spot of American/Western/consumerism/individualism cultural elements that make us collectively awful at making even small personal sacrifices (like the US), combined with insufficient size to demand front-of-line service for vaccines (unlike the US). The best we can hope for is no more variants and enough folks grasping the big number data over the emotional impact anecdotal stuff. I was optimistic in January, but I am not optimistic now...
