Chilliwack Bruins get leftover H1N1 vaccine
Last Updated: Thursday, November 5, 2009 | 12:42 PM PT
CBC News
Another B.C. hockey team is under fire for getting its players vaccinated against the H1N1 flu, but this time their doctor says they didn't jump the queue to get the shots.
Members of the Chilliwack Bruins, a junior hockey team in the Fraser Valley, were vaccinated on Monday by team doctor Paul Basson, who says the players were given doses left over from a weekend flu clinic.
Basson told CBC News he vaccinated 250 people against swine flu at the clinic on Sunday and no one was turned away. But at the end of the clinic, 25 doses were left over and they were due to expire in 24 hours.
Facing the prospect of throwing the doses away he called the Bruins, and the WHL, offering them the vaccination, and 11 players on the team consented, while the rest declined.
No queue jumping: doctor
Basson said WHL officials and Bruins managers were adamant they would accept the vaccine only if it was not at the expense of someone in a high-risk category who needed it.
"If I was the man on the street and I would find out that a hockey team ... 11 of their hockey players got shots, which could be seen as preferential treatment, I would be somewhat upset," he said.
"But I would be more upset if I was a man on the street, if I knew that 25 perfectly good shots were thrown away."
Basson said the remaining 14 doses were administered at his clinic Monday morning, to the first patients through the door, regardless of whether they met provincial criteria.
Team vaccinations raised questions
No such reasons were given by either the Calgary Flames or the Abbotsford Heat following revelations players on both teams apparently jumped the queue to get swine flu vaccinations last week.
An Alberta health official was fired for arranging the shots for the Calgary Flames, and B.C.'s provincial health officer Perry Kendall said health authorities would be investigating the doctor who gave the Abbotsford players the vaccine.
"There has been no authorization given by me or any of B.C.'s medical officers or health authorities for any professional sports team to receive early access to H1N1 vaccine. And we don't plan to be giving priority access to professional sports teams or to amateur sports teams either," Kendall said Wednesday.
The H1N1 vaccine is currently being offered in B.C. only to people under 65 with a chronic condition, children between six months and five years, pregnant women and some health-care workers, because of a shortage of supply.
So far in B.C. 15 deaths have been linked to the virus and more than 360 people have been hospitalized.
