The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

The United States plans to send roughly 4 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine that it is not using to Mexico and Canada in loan deals with the two countries, bowing to pressure to share vaccine with its allies.

Mexico will receive 2.5 million doses of the vaccine and Canada is to receive 1.5 million doses, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

GUEST: Dr. Lori Turnbull, Director, School of Public Administration with Dalhousie University

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The Government of Canada, through its COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF), is supporting a study led by McMaster University researchers aimed at understanding how well vaccination works in residents of long-term care homes and which factors may be directly linked to outbreaks. Approximately $5 million is being provided for this study, one of the largest single studies focusing on long-term care homes in Canada.

The study, which is in partnership with Schlegel Villages, St. Joseph’s Health System, and Health Sciences North Research Institute, will involve more than 2,000 residents, staff, and visitors of long-term care homes in Ontario over the course of a year.

GUEST: Dr. Dawn Bowdish, Tenured Professor of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at McMaster University

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Niagara MPP Sam Oosterhoff spoke at an event Wednesday evening tied to a group that has compared abortion to the Holocaust.

Oosterhoff, who serves as Education Minister Stephen Lecce’s parliamentary assistant, spoke at the virtual event titled “Gen Z: Challenging Abortion in Politics.”

Premier Doug Ford spoke about Oosterhoff at yesterday’s presser.

GUEST: Richard Brennan, Former Queen’s Park and Parliament Hill journalist for the Toronto Star

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Canadian consular officials were refused permission to attend today's court proceedings against Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor.

He and former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig have been jailed since 2018 on alleged national security concerns.

But Canada believes their arrest was apparent retaliation for the arrest days earlier in Vancouver of Chinese telecom executive Meng Wanzhou at the behest of the U-S.

Kovrig is due in court on Monday.

GUEST: Abigail Bimman, Ottawa Correspondent for Global National

The Government of Canada, through its COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF), is supporting a study led by McMaster University researchers aimed at understanding how well vaccination works in residents of long-term care homes and which factors may be directly linked to outbreaks. Approximately $5 million is being provided for this study, one of the largest single studies focusing on long-term care homes in Canada.

The study, which is in partnership with Schlegel Villages, St. Joseph’s Health System, and Health Sciences North Research Institute, will involve more than 2,000 residents, staff, and visitors of long-term care homes in Ontario over the course of a year.

GUEST: Dr. Dawn Bowdish, Tenured Professor of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at McMaster University

Canada has indeed asked the United States for help in procuring doses of COVID-19 vaccines, but the White House refused to say Wednesday whether it has agreed to the request.

Press secretary Jen Psaki will only say that the Biden administration is considering the request, not whether it has agreed to it.

ALSO: E.U. proposes coronavirus passes to allow people to travel freely in region by summer

GUEST: Elliot Tepper, Emeritus Professor of Political science, Carleton University

There's been some news (and a lot of speculation) lately about a possible partnership between the CFL and the XFL. Some people are even wondering whether they might merge. It's getting tougher to differentiate what's actually happened from what some Canadian football fans fear might be next, so Scott Radley and Bill Kelly look at the state of both leagues and try to sort out what might be going on.

GUEST: Scott Radley. Host of “The Scott Radley Show” Columnist, Hamilton Spec