Daycare workers shut out from swine flu shots
Decision based on flu's first wave, when child-care workers weren't hit hard, minister says
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 4, 2009 | 10:20 PM CT
CBC News
Children at daycares can easily pass along a cold or flu, say child-care workers, who are upset they aren't near the front of the line for H1N1 vaccinations. (CBC)The Manitoba Childcare Association is chafing over provincial guidelines that leave daycare workers off the list of priority recipients for swine flu shots.
Excluding early childhood educators from the list of priority categories to get the H1N1 vaccine first doesn't make sense, the association said Wednesday.
Daycares are prime targets for influenza viruses and other communicable illnesses such as colds, said Pat Wege, the group's executive director.
Wege said that if children get sick, daycare staff will likely also be calling in sick, potentially causing the child-care system to screech to a halt.
'Clinics in daycares or schools could actually slow us down.'— Theresa Oswald, Manitoba health minister
She said she recently surveyed 100 Manitoba daycares, and one in five reported unusually high levels of absenteeism.
"It won't take many sick phone calls before the program is in trouble for the day," Wege said.
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority expanded its priority list to 10 groups from four on Wednesday, but child-care workers weren't on it.
On the list are:
- Children aged six months to under five years old.
- Anyone of aboriginal ancestry.
- Disadvantaged individuals (for example, the homeless).
- People living in remote or isolated areas.
- People under 65 with a chronic medical condition or other risks, including severe obesity, substance abuse or alcoholism.
- Anyone with a weakened immune system or those who live with or care for them.
- Those who live with or care for infants under six months old.
- Single parents or anyone solely responsible for a dependent.
- Health-care workers and medical first responders.
- Pregnant women.
Carol Jones of the St. Germaine Daycare Centre in Winnipeg's St. Vital neighbourhood said not one of her 14 staff members has yet had a swine flu shot.
"It's too bad," she said, that daycare workers weren't made a priority. "Child care is an essential public service."
Wege said she thinks health officials should have held mass immunization clinics at provincial daycares to vaccinate children and staff at the same time.
Manitoba Health Minister Theresa Oswald says science is behind the decision to exclude daycare workers from a priority list of H1N1 vaccine recipients. (CBC)But Manitoba Health Minister Theresa Oswald said this would have been too complicated to set up and schedule.
"The option that we are using right now in the mass clinics is actually proving to be very swift throughput of individuals," She said. "It is arguable that these clinics in daycares or schools could actually slow us down."
Oswald defended the decision by health officials to exclude daycare workers from the priority list.
"Our decision is based on sound medical science," she said. Childhood educators were not hit heavily by the first wave of H1N1 in the spring, she said.
Just under 1,500 Winnipeggers had been vaccinated by noon on Wednesday, bringing the cumulative total in the city to 78,265.
