[vvxtiopmx]

Funny. This particular stupidity appears to be transatlantic. Here's a story from a few days ago:

Hockey team on thin ice over swine flu queue hop

Published: 29 Oct 09 14:57 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/22956/20091029/

A Swedish ice hockey team has come in for withering criticism after it was revealed on Thursday that the squad’s players were vaccinated for the swine flu ahead of pregnant women and the chronically ill.

“It goes completely against our principles and priorities to vaccinate completely healthy ice hockey players before people who belong to one of the risk groups,” said Claes-Göran Björck, a local healthcare manager with Dalarna County health services, in a statement.

Björck’s criticism is directed primarily at Leksand team doctor Ronny Borelius, who ordered 50 doses of swine flu vaccine from the town’s local health clinic to vaccinate patients he claimed belonged to a specific risk group.

Instead, the doses were used to vaccinate players on the Leksand ice hockey team, as well as the team’s coaches.

Borelius defended his decision to the local Dala-Demokraten newspaper, however, arguing that the hockey players do in fact belong to a special risk group because they meet so many people.

“We have many asthmatics on the team with sensitive bronchi. They body check and sweat and there is a high risk for contagion,” he told the newspaper.

Borelius added that money also played a role in the decision, explaining that the team needs to have healthy players in order to compete.

Currently, Leksand is tied for first place in Sweden’s second highest ice hockey league, the Hockey Allsvenskan.

But the team doctor’s justification failed to sway local health officials, who threatened to take legal action.

“I can’t draw any other conclusion than that Borelius misled Leksand’s local clinic when he asked for the vaccine,” said Björck

“We’re now going to launch a thorough investigation into what happened, and if it is revealed that irregularities occurred we will consider taking legal action.”

Leksand’s decision to vaccinate its players has also drawn criticism from the National Board of Health and Weflare (Socialstyrelsen)

“That just can’t happen, we’ve gone out with clear guidelines that risk groups and medical personnel should be vaccinated first,” said the agency’s Anders Tegnell.

TT/David Landes (news@thelocal.se)

[IodinkBoilk]

I think the real annoyance is that the Flames and families got the shots while there was a looming shortage.

If all the kids and others who really need them get their shots without waiting for new supplies, then I don't have a problem with it.

I think the real issue is the shortage of vaccine.

[Yfclciak]

The real issue is the (temporary) shortage of the vaccine (federal government planning) and the lack of priority for at-risk people to start (provincial government planning).

I know a lot of very healthy 20-somethings who got vaccines during that week. That's just how the province did ****. The fact that people are retroactively upset about the Flames is just retarded.

Well, if the Oilers (and Eskimos and Stamps) were told to wait, then...

Some of this is on the feds. Some of it is on the province. Some is also on public health officials.

Pronouncements were widely made that everyone should get the shot ASAP. It would be the jobs of professionals to have a plan, or advise one, that would have seen the first shots go to those who needed them most, like in the Swedish case above. That's not what happened.

[iouiyyut]

The shortage isn't really the result of lack of government planning. It is caused by the fact that the H1N1 virus does not grow in culture as quickly as expected, thus it takes longer to manufacture the vaccine.

[draigenia]

The shortage isn't really the result of lack of government planning. It is caused by the fact that the H1N1 virus does not grow in culture as quickly as expected, thus it takes longer to manufacture the vaccine.

The lack of government planning comes in that they only had one manufacturer of the vaccine for all of the doses. In the future they should obtain several.

The shortage is for 1-week only and due to a "manufacturing hiccup" at their sole national supplier. The misplanning was they should've had more than one source.

[Soulofpostar]

The high risk groups are defined by who stands to die from it, I think. That and health workers.

[NumsAmenniams]

Seniors have a built in resistance due to exposure to something similar before we were born, or something like that that I read.

Anyone with underlying health conditions is regarded as at risk (lung diseases, lower immunities, and such I would imagine).

[Phywhewashect]

Was this an article, or a blurb in comments?

[Gymnarnemia]

Meh. Ice floes with 'em. They stopped being good berry gatherers and deer hunters some time ago.

[OnerePeepsy]

Not this time, Imran.

Only one of the six NHL teams in Canada went around the que to get their players shots.

There are a lot of pissed off people, even in Calgary, today. Some of them waited in line with young children and were turned away due to the shortage of the vaccine.

This is a PR nightmare for the Flames.

[ibupronec]

I never said it would be "no worries." I said that, by and large, it is no worse (and in most cases, altogether milder) than the regular seasonal flu. And so far, I'm right. So suck it, Tex.

[echocassidyde]

I'll side with those that say due to the amount of travel they do, they should be given priority. Pro athletes have the higher potential to spread it so helping then not get it should be a priority.

[Pheddytrourry]

Not this time, Imran.

Only one of the six NHL teams in Canada went around the que to get their players shots.

Qualifier: The only good NHL team in Canada got their players shots.



Some of them waited in line with young children and were turned away due to the shortage of the vaccine. While that's nice and drama-filled, that's not what happened. People were turned away because the queues were too big. Subsequent clinics were cancelled for a week while the province got their **** together in lieu of an UPCOMING shortage of the vaccine (this week), and only AFTER the Flames got their shots did they make it a "high-risk group only" thing like Ontario did from day one.

[Romarionsion]

http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/...329/story.html

Can the flu shot flip flops get any more absurd? Apparently so.

Last week the government was encouraging everybody to get vaccinated and bragging about the numbers.

This week the Alberta Health Services board is "investigating" itself for the crime of vaccinating the Calgary Flames.

The Tories' glee in switching focus to an external target was evident Tuesday in Premier Ed Stelmach's declaration:

"Alberta Health Services is investigating. I can't speculate on what happened, but we will have a full report very shortly. If it happened, it shouldn't have."

It happened. The Flames had flu shots last Friday, before clinics closed, and being vaccinated changed from public service to civic outrage.

Stelmach himself set the tone when he said last Wednesday: "We're the province that is offering flu vaccines for every Albertan, not just to the high-risk groups."

So the Flames, like nearly everyone else, thought it was fine to be vaccinated.

Their blunder was to have this done in a quiet clinic that was not open to the public for flu shots.

The Flames would have been heroes instead of goats if they'd waited in a public line and signed autographs for the kids.

But the organization was worried about mob scenes. Some of these guys can draw a crowd in a grocery store.

So they went the clinic route, stepping out of the long public queues and into the annals of public relations blunders.

Flames CEO Ken King acknowledges the mistake, but adds that the Flames never would have been vaccinated if they believed one child or pregnant woman was being deprived of a flu shot.

"No, absolutely not," he says. "We would not do that, ever.

"And I have to add that the players didn't ask to be vaccinated. They were following instruction. Our players have zero culpability."

Who's really to blame for this --the team or the government health system?

The Flames could not have done anything without the full and welcoming agreement of Alberta Health Services.

The board controls each dose of vaccine and where it's administered. Not one shot can be released without approval.

Health Services evidently told the Flames that it was perfectly acceptable to be vaccinated, and to get it done at the quiet clinic.

There's already talk that somebody in Health Services has been suspended for that call.

Communications VP Roman Cooney says acknowledges "a serious error in judgment."

But the whole thing makes you wonder; if they'll so readily usher one elite group to the head of the line, who else is getting the red carpet treatment?

The Flames have stepped in a big one, no doubt about it. The image of rich players getting preference could hurt for a long time.

But the cause of this latest mess is Stelmach's problem, not a hockey team's. There's rarely been more vivid proof of the health system's casual disdain for customer relations and the public's intelligence.

On Tuesday, as the new vaccine program was announced, top health doctors said it's ethical and "a no-brainer" to start with women and children.

Just last week, though, it was fine and even ethical for women and children to wait behind thousands in long lines.

The Flames were at least decent enough to reveal a stupid error and apologize. It's a rare thing these days.

[Annyllop21]

A couple of my friends in Toronto -- healthy, 20-something males -- got the H1N1 vaccine at work. In Ontario. Where they always had a "high-risk only" policy.

They technically work in the health care industry (hospices, etc) but they don't ever interact with patients.

[Adeniinteme]

Focus your ire, Wezil. CHILDREN ARE DYING EN MASSE BECAUSE THE FLAMES GOT VACCINATED DURING ALBERTA'S FREE FOR ALL.

In any case, the OMFG WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE SHORTAGE IS OVER!!!!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/...rticle1351006/

Ottawa expecting 1.8 million doses
of flu vaccine next week

Ottawa is expecting to get at least 1.8-million new doses of H1N1 vaccine next week, boosting the total to more than 8-million.

The Harper government has come under attack for the confusion in the administration of the vaccines across the country, but federal officials said the new deliveries from GlaxoSmithKline Inc. show “there is no shortage.”

The new doses will include 1-million with adjuvant, and 800,000 without the additive to be used for pregnant women.

The federal government is responsible for ordering the vaccines, while the provinces are the ones in charge of the actual vaccination campaign.

[gamecasta]

Yeah, the hysteria is out of control. I'll get my H1N1 vaccine in a few weeks when the lineup is maybe 10 minutes. You're probably more likely to catch it standing around for 4 1/2 hours surrounded by high risk people.

[triarmarm]

Not me. I'm looking forward to a few days off work. Maybe I can stretch it into a week...

[Kuncher]

OH NO!!!

The Raptors did the same thing, only they are wording it differently.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/basket...h1n1-shot?bn=1

[fluoxet]

OMFG. I need to get my cat vaccinated now!!!

Where's that douche that fearmongered on H1N1 before? what was his name?