Vancouver Sun

Alberta flu vaccine clinics to close until further notice


After days of runaway lines and in the face of dwindling supply, the Alberta government put an abrupt halt to its mass immunization program against the H1N1 flu Saturday, promising to launch a new effort next week targeted exclusively at high-risk groups.

The shutdown means vaccine clinics that attracted thousands of people Saturday — and every day since they’ve opened — will remain closed Sunday and until further notice. When they do reopen, only pregnant women, people under 65 with chronic health conditions, children between six months and five years old, people living in remote communities and health care workers will be vaccinated.

“It is important for the public not to panic and respect the priorities for vaccination,” said Dr. Gerry Predy, the province’s chief medical officer of health. “We’re asking people to be calm. There will be more vaccine, and there should be enough vaccine for everybody who wants it.”

The province initially received 600,000 doses of the vaccine. Of those, they doled out more than 300,000 in the first six days of the campaign.

The government had asked for 200,000 more doses for next week. But they’ve have been told they may only receive 90,000 because the manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, has fallen behind in production.

Predy said the reduction in vaccine is a national issue, one beyond the province’s control.

Critics, though, say Alberta should have had a targeted vaccination program from the beginning and that launching one now reveals they were poorly prepared for the pandemic.

“This come-one, come-all approach has been chaos,” said David Eggen, the executive director of Friends of Medicare. “This lack of planning has now come back to bite us.”

While some provinces turned the general public away during the initial phase of immunization, Alberta only asked that priority be given to high-risk groups. Clinics did not screen patients or turn anyone away.

“There’s no excuse for this kind of bumbling. It’s not acceptable. People are outraged,” said David Swann, the leader of the provincial Liberal Party.

Swann said he met a 10-year-old boy in a vaccination line at a Calgary mall who couldn’t understand why the vaccine wasn’t being given to those who have the greatest chance of becoming ill. Alberta Health Services should have been turning people away if they did not fit the high-risk criteria, he said.

Predy, though, defended the province’s approach.

“Our pandemic plan was to vaccinate as many people as possible in as short a period as possible,” he said. “In retrospect, we still think it was the right thing to do given the information we had at the time we developed the plan.”

The final day of the mass vaccination campaign was perhaps the most chaotic yet.

In Edmonton, overwhelmed flu clinics stopped accepting new arrivals by 12:30 p.m. as people descended on them in what appeared to be record numbers in advance of an anticipated vaccine shortage.

Lineups at some clinics formed a full five hours ahead of their scheduled 9 a.m. opening.

At the Strathcona County Health Centre in Sherwood Park, some lined up at 4 a.m. to hold spots for themselves and family members.

By 9:15 a.m., there were already nearly 1,000 people in line, many of them wrapped in blankets, shawls and sleeping bags to guard against the fall chill.

Like many in line, Michael Kopp said he was galvanized by talk about an anticipated shortfall of the vaccine.

“When you hear the health minister talking on TV about how they’re going to run out of the vaccine, you just know there are going to be masses of people,” said Kopp, who was there with his wife Carol.

Health Minister Ron Liepert said Friday the provincial government was going through about 50,000 doses of the vaccine a day. Liepert warned the province could run out of the vaccine by this week if public demand continued at its current pace.

Of the thousands who showed up at Edmonton’s Bonnie Doon Mall Saturday, few had shopping in mind.

Those who did were buying snacks for restless children from Tigesti Woldeab, whose Something Good kiosk is in the centre of the mall.

“Business has been pretty good,” acknowledged Woldeab.

By mid-morning, a security guard estimated the crowd to be around 1,500, some facing a five-hour wait.

Security was heavy at some clinics in anticipation of a backlash from those turned away.

“Our staff have had a lot of anger directed toward them, and it’s unfortunate because I think they’ve done a great job,” said Predy. “But we’ve tried to do everything we can to prevent that from happening.”

In Calgary, clinics turned people away for a second consecutive day.

“I am very scared,” said taxi driver Resham Sidhu, a father of three young children, after getting turned away from a clinic. “I drive a cab and I have contact with a lot of people, and then if I catch something, I contact people. Then I come back home and (put my children) at risk, too.”

Val Alvarez — who was turned away for a second time this week in Calgary — said she was frustrated she hadn’t been able to get the shots for her two children.

“They are at the age that where they are saying kids are a priority,” she said. “Well, they’re not a priority if they’re telling us to go home.”

Outside the big cities, flu-shot clinics in Bonnyville and Grande Prairie both reported long lineups Saturday, but there was no indication they had to turn people away.

Predy said the vaccine was disturbed across the province based both on population and on turnout from previous campaigns.

The head of the province’s largest civil service union, meanwhile, wants front-line justice and social service employees put on the vaccination priority list.

Guy Smith, the president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, said corrections employees, probation officers, provincial Sheriffs, child protection workers, youth care workers and nurses in correctional facilities face a higher-than-average risk of contracting the flu.

“These public employees need to be available to keep the system operating in the event of a major health crisis,” said Smith. “If these employees get sick, there will be a shortage of trained people who can do their jobs.”

Predy, though, said prisoners and prison workers don’t fall within the high-risk category.

Eventually, he said, everybody in the province who wants it will get the vaccine. But in the short term, only those who need it most will get the jab.

“We will be turning away people who don’t meet the criteria, so the public needs to be aware of that,” Predy said.

Predy said health workers will work through the weekend to develop a screening plan. Once they do, the clinics will be reopened.

As for the rest of the province, Predy preached patience.

“People shouldn’t panic. This is a temporary shortage,” he said. “We anticipate that within three weeks, we should have a better flowing supply of vaccine.”