Global’s Jeff Keele speaking to Dr. Sande Harlos of the WRHA last night.
Keele: Dr. Harlos, in hindsight was it a mistake not to screen people last week at the clinics?
Harlos: No I don’t think it was because at that time the vaccine supply was quite a bit higher than it is right now and our main goal was to get as much vaccine into people as quickly as we could.
Sorry Dr. Harlos, there’s spin and there’s bullshit, and that was a bullshit answer. Especially since Keele gave you the “in hindsight” save on the question.
This H1N1 fight might be unprecedented in terms of numbers and media hype, but that doesn’t excuse the poor decisions that have been made by health officials across the country. And blaming the feds or the vaccine supplier doesn’t help either.
The WRHA has had enough time to prepare plans for a dozen different contingencies. But rather than rolling out a well-conceived strategy to get the vaccine to those who need it most, it essentially went with the “come and get it!” approach.
Week one should have been restricted to those on the “Priority 1″ list. If you have vaccine left after that, then move to “Priority 2″, or open it to the general public following some sort of logical system — e.g. Monday for people with Jan-Mar birthdays, Tuesday for Apr-Jun, etc. — with even distribution of dosages for each day. By that point you’ve hopefully received enough additional vaccine that you can open it up completely.
That took me 30 seconds, and while it’s not a perfect plan, in hindsight it would have worked a hell of a lot better than what the WRHA came up with after months of work.
You screwed up folks. Now come clean and get on with the job.
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In the WRHA’s defence, they’re not the only health authority to drop the needle on this one. While passing through Calgary the other day I noticed that headlines (and anger) there are nearly identical to those in Winnipeg.
And at least there’s no evidence in Winnipeg of professional athletes jumping the queue, or is there?
Filed under: winnipeg blog | Tagged: h1n1
For the record, first the media told everybody that the very young, old and sick were at most risk and should get the first shots. Then the first or second day of the immunizations, the media SCREAMED that a boy of only 13, and healthy, had died of H1N1. Next day the lineups were huge and many of those lined up were not in the so-called “risk” group. Check the death figures — most of them are NOT in the “risk” group. Everyone deserved these shots, not just a few. I’m tired of the self-righteous screaming away at those who went in to protect their lives, and the lives of their children not in the “risk” group. What a bunch of malarkey and self-righteousness from most of the finger-pointers.
I don’t think how the WRHA handled things was unreasonable. I think it was well advertised that only high-risk folks were wanted for the first round. But if someone brings in their high-risk kid, does it make sense to make them come back again later? And would it really be practical to enforce the high-risk status? How would it be done? We don’t have electronic health records. Would they require a note from their family doctor? The burden on the system would be enormous.
@CG: Well the PR optics did not seem to mesh well with the message that only the vulnerable should be considered. There was a photo-op of Brian Postl getting a shot on the cover of the Free Press, trying to illustrate the importance of getting the vaccination. Dr. Postl at face value does not appear to be some one who would fall under the category of high-priority. What message does that send to the “general public?”
Add to that the onslaught of PR and Ad campaigns from the provincial government about the severe implications of H1N1, people who are on a lower priority are going to get into a tizzy to get vaccinated anyway, even if they aren’t on the priority list. If people think they’ll suffer or die if they don’t get the shot, then what does it matter if some granny doesn’t get her shot? It’s either them or it’s us right?
Of the 330 million people who live in North America, fewer than 1000 have died from H1N1. MB Health should have strictly stuck to the message that most of the public has nothing to worry about list unless you are vulnerable and had strict restrictions as to who could get the vaccine. And as PF said, if at the end of the day there are vaccines left, then by all means bring on everyone else.
@CG: As someone who does fall in the high-risk category (severe lung damage & compromised immune system) who could not get a shot, I’m ticked that a bunch of people got their shots at the same time to avoid the nuisance of coming back.
The process of asking high risk people to stand in line for hours with people who could be giving them seasonal flu or TB is pretty careless attitude to health. I could quite easily get a different infection simply because the only place I could get the shot was in a temporary set-up that is staffed by volunteers at the front line that is full of coughing people. The odds I am given are these: I have a one in two chance of getting it and if I get it I have a one in three chance of dying. There are high risk people who have better odds than me and ones that have worse. The addition cost of treating me vs. the cost of giving me a vaccine is huge!
Quite literally it wouldn’t kill the low risk people to wait one week – it could kill me.
Don’t give me lame ass excuses for bureaucratic screw-ups.
Frog: do you want to borrow my bullshit-o-meter?
@cherenkov – Thanks, but I’m afraid Harlos would have broken the thing.
@LM
Manitoba received 15,000 shots to serve a population of one million. Sure, everyone deserved the shot, but there’s no way everyone could possibly receive it. While this boy’s death is unfortunate it is an anomaly. The logic behind vaccinating the old, very young and everyone else in the priority status is that they have poor immune systems, and more likely to become a carrier to pass it on to everyone else. If supplies are limited, then vaccinate those who are most likely to get it and nip the whole thing in the bud as best as possible.
@Loud Mouth – You’re right, everyone who wants the shot deserves to get it. However, running vaccination clinics on a free-for-all basis was just stupid, from both a health and customer service perspective.
@Cycling Guy – They managed to enforce it on Monday, so why not last week? And if they had been hard asses about it from day one they wouldn’t have had nearly as many non-priority people showing up in the first place.
I am a member one of the listed priority groups, but as an Aboriginal woman with a middle class background I do not suffer the indignities of poverty, or live in overcrowded conditions, not considering my over indulgence in chocolate, I am relatively healthy. I do not believe H1N1 will cause more damage to me because of genetics, nor could I in good conscience stand in line ahead of concerned/frighted parents and their children.