Swine Flu

[The Brain]

Canada fails. Film at 11.

[crazy canuck]

Think about what you are saying. A small community of a few thousand where everyone knows there is enough vaccine for all vs. a major city where everyone knows that there *isn't* enough vaccine for all (and where the shortage is even worse than everyone was told). Which will prove the most problematic, when panic sets in?

Give me a break.  The only reason for panick is because healthy people who were not at risk were not told that it would take a few weeks before there was enough vaccine to get to them.  For some reason everyone else outside Ontario realized this and now Iggy is playing to some misplaced Central Canadian sense of entitlement that if Whitehorse got everyone vaccinated so should Toronto!

[Josephus]

Don't blame Iggy.


http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/auditorgeneral/article/720482--ottawa-ill-prepared-for-emergencies-auditor-general?bn=1

Looks like the Auditor General is chiming in, and Harper's to blame.

Canada's Auditor General Sheila Fraser says the Conservative government has dropped the ball in preparing Canada for pandemics and other national emergencies.

The broadside comes at a time when an increasing number of fingers are being pointed at the federal government for its handling of the problem-plagued cross-country H1N1 vaccination plan.

In her annual fall report Tuesday, Fraser said a federal emergency response plan, instead of being implemented, is still in the draft stage after almost six years of waiting for Public Safety Canada to get it approved.

"We found that the plan has not been formally endorsed by the (Conservative) government or other federal departments," she said in her opening statement to reporters. "I have no idea as to why the plan is not approved. I think that would be an excellent question for government."

The report stated that Public Safety Canada, established in 2003 to establish the federal government's ability to respond to emergencies, has not exercised the leadership necessary to coordinate emergency management.

"Canada needs to have a planned and coordinated approach in place so that federal, provincial and municipal agencies know what part they will play in managing a crisis," Fraser said.

"For H1N1, coordination ... is not as efficient as it could be," Fraser told reporters.

Ottawa has reassured Canadians for months there would be enough H1N1 vaccine, but hundreds of thousands are growingly increasingly frustrated at the lengthy delays in getting their shots or at not being able to get them at all.

"Until it is clearly established how Public Safety Canada will work with other departments, it will be difficult for it to truly coordinate the federal response to emergency situation." Fraser stated.

The report noted that Public Safety Canada has made "considerable progress" in federal emergency coordination through its Government Operations Centre.

"The centre produced regular situation awareness reports for issues such as the H1N1 virus pandemic," the report stated.

The report also questions the government's ability to respond to the aftermath of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack because of a lack of coordinated response and training, and questions why there is no specific plan to protect critical infrastructure such as water treatment plants or power grids.

"Public Safety has provided no guidance to departments to ensure that they determine what critical infrastructure needs to be protected," the report stated.



Time to bring down the gov't. 

[crazy canuck]

The auditor has had time to actually "audit" how the H1N1 vaccine has been handled?  Seems to me she is jumping to a conclusion here.

[Malthus]

Think about what you are saying. A small community of a few thousand where everyone knows there is enough vaccine for all vs. a major city where everyone knows that there *isn't* enough vaccine for all (and where the shortage is even worse than everyone was told). Which will prove the most problematic, when panic sets in?

Give me a break.  The only reason for panick is because healthy people who were not at risk were not told that it would take a few weeks before there was enough vaccine to get to them.  For some reason everyone else outside Ontario realized this and now Iggy is playing to some misplaced Central Canadian sense of entitlement that if Whitehorse got everyone vaccinated so should Toronto!

No one is saying that since Whitehorse got immunized so should Toronto - except you.

What I'm saying is that you can't compare the two roll-outs, and that there is at least some evidence that the feds screwed up - not just Ontario.

From the newspaper account of the Auditor General's report:

Ottawa has reassured Canadians for months there would be enough H1N1 vaccine, but hundreds of thousands are growingly increasingly frustrated at the lengthy delays in getting their shots or at not being able to get them at all.

As for "panic", that's a media whipped up thing. The feds did not help, by basically misinforming everyone about how much vaccine was available.

In your haste to trash Iggy, you are reaching. I have nothing against trashing Iggy, mind; just don't end up making him look good by saying stuff that makes no sense or is contrary to the facts. 

Also, contrary to your oft-repeated assertions, rollout problems ain't limited to Ontario.

Rollout problems in Manitoba:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2009/11/03/man-h1n1-clinics-reopen.html

Rollout problems in Alberta:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2009/11/03/calgary-h1n1-vaccine-alberta-clinics-opening.html

[Barrister]

Seeing the words 'Yukon' and 'crowds' in the same sentence makes no sense.

On the other hand, I love seeing a Yukon hijack that I didn't even participate in. 

[Malthus]

Heh this one is amusing:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/Braid+Alberta+shot+plan+true+Soviet+style+debacle/2174516/story.html

Only Alberta has been forced to close all vaccination clinics for four full days. It's still a mystery why our authorities decided to go for mass immunization rather than the more controlled approach adopted by most other provinces.

But there is a clue in Health Minister Ron Liepert's comment last week about avoiding "Soviet mode."

He was talking about his distaste for asking people to prove they're high risk in order to get a shot. But the minister soon got exactly what he dreads--a classic Soviet-mode breakdown.

Only in Ontario, Eh? Try Alberta. 

[Barrister]

Incedentally, people will always complain.

I'm out on circuit in some very remote communities.  Some of the court staff we're talking about running over to the local health clinic to get the flu shot, since there is absolutely zero line-up, so as to avoid the line-ups in Whitehorse.

Of course you can still *get* the shot in Whitehorse, unlike many other places.

[Josephus]

Only in Ontario, Eh? Try Alberta. 

I love seeing Alberta compared to the Soviet Union.

Poor Neil. 

[Malthus]

Only in Ontario, Eh? Try Alberta. 

I love seeing Alberta compared to the Soviet Union.

Poor Neil. 

[CC] The authour must be playing into some Albertan sense of entitlement. Everyone else in Canada has accepted shortages as natural [/CC]

[Neil]

Only in Ontario, Eh? Try Alberta. 

I love seeing Alberta compared to the Soviet Union.

Poor Neil. 

Only idiots are trying to get the vaccine.  I mean really, it's the flu people.  Chill out.

Actually, there's a clinic near my tower, and it there was a lineup of chinks wearing SARS masks.  Hillarious.

[Syt]

Slovakia has closed several border crossings to the Ukraine were there's a six digit number of infected. Schools are closed in Ukraine and all large public assemblies have been cancelled.

[HisMajestyBOB]

Some after-school institutes have closed here in Korea, and quite a few schools and institutes have closed for a week if enough students/teachers get infected. My school currently has over 100 students out (out of ~1600 students) with Swine flu - mostly 2nd and 3rd year students. Back in early October we closed for 2 days before the holidays, giving us a week off, when there were maybe 60 1st year students sick, and fewer upper classmen.

[Drakken]

Montreal has changed its sequence of vaccination.

Now pregnant women and kids aged 5 or less all pass in priority, then kids with immunodepresson or chronical problems, then adults with immunodepresson or chronical problems (the latter on November 23rd). The rest of the population, including people like me whose girlfriend and mother are people with chronical problems, are to be vaccinated only starting December 5th.

GF is going to get vaccinated on the South Shore with the rest of her family, to speed it up, since she is still listed as a resident there. Me, since I am a Montreal resident for the last three years, have to suck it up and wait my turn, thanks to all those jerkasses who didn't wait their fucking turn to get vaccinated, including old farting geezers who have partial immunity anyway old people who traveled in buses outside of their respective regions to clot the waiting lines to steal someone else's dose get vaccinated ahead. That's what you get for respecting the deadlines and remaining civil : get shoved to the end of the line, while the clods won and got vaccinated. Next time I'll rush to get my vaccine, seems the percentage of success is higher that way. 

It also means that in Canada's third metropolis the active population will be vaccinated dead last AND after the rest of the province. Just on the other side of the Saint-Lawrence River, healthy adults will be vaccinated starting November 30th. I don't know what the sequence of vaccination in Toronto and Vancouver is, but there is something nonsensical about vaccinating big urban areas, and thus the greatest concentration of people in a territory, last rather than first if one wants to stop a pandemic. Hell, even healthy people in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, whose population density is even lower than some parts of Siberia, get access to the vaccine earlier than Montreal. 

[crazy canuck]

Heh this one is amusing:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/Braid+Alberta+shot+plan+true+Soviet+style+debacle/2174516/story.html

Only Alberta has been forced to close all vaccination clinics for four full days. It's still a mystery why our authorities decided to go for mass immunization rather than the more controlled approach adopted by most other provinces.

But there is a clue in Health Minister Ron Liepert's comment last week about avoiding "Soviet mode."

He was talking about his distaste for asking people to prove they're high risk in order to get a shot. But the minister soon got exactly what he dreads--a classic Soviet-mode breakdown.

Only in Ontario, Eh? Try Alberta. 

I have always thought that the Albertans secretly wanted to be just like Ontario.