PCs question Liberals' H1N1 vaccine rollout
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 | 2:20 PM AT
CBC News
The provincial Progressive Conservatives are questioning the New Brunswick government's initial handling of swine flu vaccinations, which resulted in some children being turned away from flu clinics.
Until Wednesday, there hadn't been any hint of partisan discord with regard to the vaccination effort. That non-partisanship ended, however, when Tory health critic Margaret-Ann Blaney said in the legislature that the Liberal government was wrong to allow the general public to get the flu shot at the first clinics it organized.
It should have reserved those initial clinics for children and other people at high risk of developing complications from the flu, Blaney said.
"A policy decision was made and taken by the government that no one was going to be turned away," Blaney said. "And so, [the] general public was showing up to get a vaccine, and as a result, children were not getting vaccinated because clinics in the schools were subsequently cancelled."
Blaney said she's not criticizing health-care workers who delivered the shots but the policy-makers who made the decisions.
Clinics in Saint John and Moncton had to be closed during the first week of swine flu vaccinations in late October because of rush of people who showed up.
In Saint John, some parents showed up with their children at a clinic meant specifically for them only to find that there were no more shots left because many adults had received their vaccinations at that clinic.
New Brunswick's supply of the vaccine, which targets the H1N1 influenza A virus that causes swine flu, has since been replenished, and vaccinations for the general public start next week.
Health Minister Mary Schryer told the legislature that the province's vaccination program has gone well and roughly 200,000 people have been inoculated so far.
"This is impressive progress, and it has been made despite significant vaccine shortages across the country," Schryer said.
The health department added more staff to its 1-800 line that provides information on the H1N1 virus, vaccination clinics and symptoms of swine flu, the minister announced on Wednesday.
Schryer said staff saw an "overwhelming" increase in the number of calls to the help line after the swine flu-related deaths of two Ontario youths last month.
