Screaming Eagles players got flu shot
Last Updated: Thursday, November 5, 2009 | 12:58 PM AT
CBC News
The 23 players on the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League were given the H1N1 vaccination last Friday night after their game in Sydney, N.S.
But Eagles president Paul MacDonald said Thursday it wasn't his intention to have his team jump the line for the flu vaccination; it was an honest mistake.
He said that the club wasn't aware the rules had changed before the shots were given to their players. Earlier that afternoon, the Department of Health Promotion announced the vaccine would be reserved for high risk groups only until further notice.
"I feel sheepish about it now. But, at the time, we were not in any way shape or form trying to get around the protocols that were in place because basically on the Monday everybody in Nova Scotia was going to be vaccinated," MacDonald said. "And then, come Friday, everybody realized, for whatever reason, there was a severe shortage [of vaccine]."
He said if the team's medical staff had known about the change in policy, then the players likely would not have been vaccinated.
MacDonald said he understands why people might be upset, but it's just an unfortunate situation — one he'll be careful to avoid in the future.
The Moncton Wildcats, also of the QMJHL, recently came under fire when it was revealed that all 25 of their players had already been vaccinated against the swine flu, even as hundreds of others across Canada waited in long lines to get their shots.
But on Thursday, Wildcats general manager Bill Schurman claimed his junior hockey team's players lined up at a public clinic to receive their H1N1 vaccinations, only days after saying the team's medical staff offered the shots.
On Tuesday, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League cancelled the Moncton Wildcats games this week after two players developed swine flu and several other members exhibited similar symptoms.
