Media Fanning The H1N1 Flames

As you may have heard in the news, well actually I’m quite certain you’ve read about this because on the evening news there are no less than 8-10 different stories related to H1N1. If you haven’t I’ll provide a brief coles notes version.

Last Friday the Calgary Flames organization were provided with their own private H1N1 immunization clinic. The clinic was open to all staff, players and their families including those from the farm team in Abbotsford, BC. A senior Alberta Health Services (AHS) staffer that approved the clinic was later fired for the serious ‘misjudgement’.

While the news first broke out on Tuesday that a private clinic was setup for the Calgary Flames, the actual clinic was put on before the weekend on Friday. This is important to note as the public outrage seems a bit overboard in my opinion. AHS announced on the weekend that the province would be changing the H1N1 immunization plans due to stronger than anticipated demand. Prior to this, all H1N1 clinics were open to the general public. Now the new plan is to only allow those that are deemed high-risk to receive the shots.

The planning for the private clinic no doubt took place well before the vaccine shortage was announced. So while I agree that the private clinic for the Calgary Flames should not have been put on, I believe the situation is being blown out of proportion by the media. An AHS staffer is fired over this private clinic in which 50-60 shots were given out (I’m assuming here that not everyone that was eligible to get the shots at the private clinic actually took advantage)? How many of you reading this know of people that are not in the high-risk group that went out and got shots? Are you chastising these people for jumping in front of those that need the shots?

“Hockey players are not at high risk for swine flu,” NDP Leader Brian Mason said in question period. “Some pregnant women and young children now face a greater risk of very serious disease or even death because millionaire hockey players got a vaccine they did not urgently need.”

What about Dr. Andre Corriveau? He is Alberta chief medical officer of health who urged all Albertans to get vaccinated. His decision to open clinics to all Albertans instead of just high-risk Albertans was a critical mistake but he still gets to keep his job. Wait, theres more. Dr. Corriveau himself who does not work face to face with patients and thus is not considered high-risk received the H1N1 vaccine.

Perhaps his boss, Ron Liepert the Health Minister should be fired too? The whole H1N1 vaccination debacle falls on him. Ultimately, some big mistakes were made from the get go and now we’re facing a vaccine shortage here in Alberta. Who gets fired? Some middle manager that approved a private clinic for the Calgary Flames? If there was no uproar would he still have his job?

To argue a different point, was it really a bad idea to vaccinate the Calgary Flames? We have a semi-large organization travelling to dozens of cities in a short period of time competing face to face with other players who are also travelling all over Canada and the United States. One cannot deny that this is an excellent transmission opportunity for the H1N1 virus. Immunizing those that are travelling frequently can only reduce the chance of the virus being brought in from another city. Is that not the whole point of this mass vaccination?

I hear there are people that are unloading their season tickets because of this incident. To that I say great!, more tickets for the rest of us.

Photo Credit: Malcolm Mayes, edmontonjournal.com