Fiasco being the operative word here. The government knew months ago that this unusual flu was coming around, but chose to sit back and pick their noses and wait for it. Then, they woke up to the political consequences of a do-nothing approach, and got busy looking for a supplier. Again, for political reasons, they chose a Canadian firm. Glaxo-Smith-Kline, whose specialty, according to Wikipedia, is dermatology. Are you wondering what a company that is world famous for its research in dermatology is doing getting involved in vaccine production for a major flu epidemic? Me, too. This evidently isn't their field of expertise, and shouldn't we have the benefit of the best expertise available?
Our government, mindful of its fragile political future, ordered fifty million doses of the vaccine - for a population of only thirty-three million, of which a significant percentage had either already caught that flu, or had decided against being vaccinated against it. After that perceived goof was contemplated on Parliament Hill, it was decided to engage the media in a concentrated campaign to encourage every possible recipient to line up for a flu shot. The resulting 'overkill' of media enthusiasm scared the hell out of ordinary men, women, and children nationwide, and immediately triggered a stampede to the nearest clinics for the shots.
Medical staffs at clinics were caught flat-footed and mostly empty-handed, because the vaccine supplier simply couldn't produce enough of it quickly enough to satisfy the instant requests of the millions of frightened individuals who suddenly appeared on doorsteps of clinics across the land.
Compounding this confused picture, there was a recent announcement on an American TV station in Seattle to the effect that their people had just recently 'found' another large supply of vaccine for their own inoculation campaign, at about the same time as our own supplier announced a sudden unexplained shortfall in expected production yields for the vaccine. The news media, sensing a story, began holding the politicians' feet to the fire, as they say, for an explanation which hasn't so far been forthcoming.
Our federal Minister of Health, Leona Aglukkaq, may be an exemplary member of our aboriginal minority but she has absolutely no formal medical qualifications whatsoever that I am able to determine, and perhaps that's why she sounded a bit like a parrot on TV yesterday, repeating that it's the provinces and territories who are responsible for delivery of the vaccine, not the federal government. Apparently, the federal government's sole responsibility is to create fiascoes like this, not avoid or resolve them. Are you wondering how many millions of taxpayer dollars are being wasted during this mess? Me too!
No comments:
Post a Comment