NO EXCUSE FOR FLU PANDEMONIUM
The federal response to the H1N1 flu pandemic has been botched. And the health of Canadians has been jeopardized as a consequence.
The confusion and worry across the country are reflected almost every night on national television newscasts. Anxious people have been standing in line-ups for hours, even days, at vaccination stations. Provincial health care workers are under siege.
And sadly, some people have died – including otherwise healthy teenage hockey players and others – before they could be vaccinated.
How could there possibly be delays and shortages in vaccine supplies now, after so many months of unmistakable warnings?
The first H1N1 outbreak occurred last March in Mexico. The World Health Organization immediately went on pandemic alert. The Liberal Official Opposition began asking pointed questions in Parliament in April. We were repeatedly told not to worry; everything was totally under control.
In early May, Canadian scientists beat the rest of the world in “mapping the genetic code” of the H1N1 virus, paving the way to the right vaccine.
But it was the United States, not Canada, that placed the world’s first order for the mass production of vaccine supplies. That was in late May. Many other countries followed suit.
Shockingly, the Conservative Government did not place an order for Canada until August. That was three months after our genetic mapping breakthrough. We dropped tragically behind the rest of the world, and the Canadian roll-out of vaccine supplies has been late, hesitant and confusing.
People naturally wonder “what might have been”, IF Canada had placed its first vaccine order back in May, like the Americans did.
Provincial authorities and health care workers are doing their best to cope. But they’ve been badly let down by a federal government that falsely assured everyone that everything was just fine – when clearly, it was not!
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