H1N1 supplier vaccinating workers' families
Last Updated: Thursday, November 5, 2009 | 9:22 PM ET
CBC News
GlaxoSmithKline produces the H1N1 vaccine at its facility in Quebec City. (CBC)The family members of staff working for the only company producing the swine flu vaccine in Canada are being vaccinated ahead of many priority groups, according to a Radio-Canada investigation.
A team with the French-language arm of the CBC visited the GlaxoSmithKline facility in Quebec City to check on security measures Thursday — only to discover that the company was welcoming employees and their family members for a vaccination clinic.
"It is a sort of privilege that we have for the families," said mechanic Patrick Cayouette, who was leaving the clinic with his sister, Marie-Pier. Cayouette said the two do not live together.
"I would have had to wait until Nov. 15 to get vaccinated," said Marie Pier Cayouette. "But here, I had the chance to get vaccinated ahead of a lot of other people … even before the order of priorities."
'Has there been any [preferential treatment]? Probably. But none has been authorized by the Health Ministry.'—Dr. Alain Poirier, Quebec's chief of public health
Quebec's chief public health officer, Dr. Alain Poirier, said there should be no preferential treatment.
"Has there been any? Probably. But none has been authorized by the Health Ministry," said Poirier.
Poirier said he himself is still waiting his turn to get the vaccine.
Wednesday evening, even GlaxoSmithKline president Paul N. Lucas said he had not been vaccinated yet.
"Because I’m not in the priority groups," Lucas said.
The vaccine targets the strain of H1N1 influenza A virus responsible for the current swine flu pandemic.
Agreement unclear
GlaxoSmithKline said the vaccination of employees' families is permitted thanks to an agreement with public health authorities in Quebec and Ontario as well as with Health Canada.
But Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc seemed unaware of the situation.
GSK employee Patrick Cayouette and his sister, Marie-Pier, were vaccinated on Thursday (CBC)
"Generally, we vaccinate the workers. … We recommend not to vaccinate the family and to go according to priority groups," Bolduc said.
After initially saying the agreement only applied to employees at GlaxoSmithKline, a spokesperson for Health Canada later confirmed it also covers members of their immediate family.
The doses come from the province's supply of the vaccine, said Health Canada.
Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, has defended Canada's decision to have only one company supply the vaccine, saying the priority was to have a supplier in Canada that could provide sufficient vaccines for the entire country.
He said GlaxoSmithKline, which won the call for tender, was the only company that could produce enough of the vaccine.
As a result, Butler-Jones said Canada has more guaranteed vaccines than anywhere else in the world.
