I don't mean to suggest, of course, that they have breached their contract. It would have been nice if everyone had been prescient and been able to produce 34 million doses of a difficult to manufacture vaccine in a weekend. Since neither the Canadian nor any other manufacturers have been able to do so, perhaps the rhetoric on this is a bit overblown don't you think? Sometimes difficult challenges, like responding to a flu outbreak, are just a bit more challenging to deal with than saying "fix it".

And, of course, its not the federal government managing flu clinics.

This may be of interest: Melissa Auf Der Maur's account of having H1N1 last May:

http://www.themarknews.com/articles/363-swine-flu…

Where was the opposition fury in April, May and June? In fact, where was it up until that poor 13 year old boy died of the flu and there were suddenly waves of fear throughout a population who was largely apathetic to swine flu the day before?

Also, in addition to California only being three weeks ago, as scf noted, you need to research a bit more: many of the vaccines are in the form of nasal sprays – those have not yet been licensed for use in Canada.

Wow.

Not that, at this time, I am actually paying any attention to the *cough* debate. So boy will egg be on my face if it turns out that all opposition parties are currently congratulating Minister Aglukkaq, the federal public health people, and the Conservatives in general.

Thanks, but I am pretty sure there will be no need to ship damp face cloths my way…

Although, in fairness, any major in-depth report has mentioned something close to that. Sadly, it was usually the flavour of "Canada's top doctor rushed to the microphones yesterday to try and make us believe that this flu bug isn't as bad as annual seasonal flu…"

It's quite amazing. Like George Bush.

Some guys just have a knack for this kind of thing, I guess.

The issue of adjuvanted versus unadjuvanted seems to be a medical decision, not a political one. The government relied on the advice that seemed correct, that adjuvantd vaccine was safe and more effective than unadjuvanted – so that is what the governmetn ordered – I think your belief that it is slower to produce is simply wrong – its the other way round. The opinion was also that unadjuvanted vaccine might be safer for pregnant women – so that was ordered as well – a sensible step given the medical advice.

But more importantly, they bungled a lot of things on this so far. Thank goodness we had 6 months warning and the virus wasn't worse or there would be even more deaths. We need to be better prepared than the Conservatives are.

Blaming parents, blaming the supplier, blaming the provinces, blaming the media and the Liberals is not good governance.

Many countries, like the US and the UK, had placed orders in May. Harper did not order the vaccine until August.

Many countries used multiple suppliers, like the US which used 5 different companies. Harper placed all of his orders with a single supplier.

Most countries ordered the unadjuvanted version of the vaccine because it was quicker and had been tested on pregnant women. Harper decided to go with the adjuvanted because he claimed it was equally safe for pregnant women. Fine. Perhaps he has information the rest of the world doesn't. But if that was the case, then why did he stop the order for the adjuvanted vaccine and ask GSK to provide the unadjuvanted vaccine, thereby further delaying the vaccine.

One thing is for certain: we can thank our lucky stars that this virus, while scarier than the regular flu viruses, is not a SARS type virus or worse. With this level of mismanagement, in a real bad pandemic or worse an epidemic a lot of people would be dead right now.

For quick starters.

Maybe in minor numbers, but from my quickie research it looks like Britain and the USA have pretty much started up at the same time as Canada.

Source?

I dont know how helpful it will be, but debate away.

There may have been production delays by the manufacturer, which may or may not have been preventable. That might be worthy of investigation later, but there is no suggestion the federal government should have awarded the contract to anyone else (Smith Kline already had the standing contract for flu vaccine) or that there was anything the federal government itself could have done to speed up manufacture.

Yesterday, Minister Aglukkaq said that "panicked parents" are to blame for the vaccine shortfall. Does the Minister really think that parents are at fault for worrying about their health and lives of their children?

The government has said that "panicked parents" were to blame for the shortfall, that GlaxoSmithKline is to blame for the shortfall, that the provincial delivery of healthcare services is the cause. Will this government take any responsibility for the delivery shortfall? Does the Minister think the federal government has done nothing wrong at all? Can the Minister please clarify these conflicting statements of passing the buck?

If the government believes that the adjuvanted and the unadjuvanted versions are equally safe for pregnant women, why did the government feel the need to change its order and delay delivery?

The US placed orders with no less than 5 suppliers. Novartis, for example, was already filling orders with 25 countries by July. Why did the Conservatives place their order with only one supplier?

The inflammation from a bad flu can lead to things like heart attacks later on in life.

So its a damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I had the shot on Oct. 30th and i'm fine, for what its worth.

Most countries ordered the vaccine in May, including the US and the UK, but the Conservative government waited until the end of summer. Why?

Every major country had started immunizing citizens as early as 5 or 6 weeks ago. Why did Canada lag so far behind everyone else and only start administering the H1N1 vaccine on October 26?

When exactly did the government actually place its order with GlaxoSmithKline?

When did the government change its order for the adjuvanted version of the vaccine? How many weeks of delay did this last minute change cause?

WHO recommended production of the H1N1 vaccine on July 7, but the Harper government waited until mid to late August. Why did the government delay in ordering the vaccine?

WHO recommended unadjuvanted vaccines for pregnant women on July 7, but the Conservatives didn’t order them until September 4. Why did they delay the order?

I think health officials at many levels were racheting up the warnings to offset Setptember's apathy, which backfired when a few unfortunate children were killed by the flu, and apathy turned to panic (needlessly). (I'm not for a second diminishing the deaths, but the reality is that people die of the flu every year.)

But there was point to my message, which is basically that "Yet I think many more people are surviving than dying" isn't going to get people's attention.

My symptoms were really high fever, and a honkin' gianormous mass of dry mucuous at the back of my throat that I felt like I was choking on. And I couldn't get out of bed. I finally had to find ways to deal with it, and tried a xylitol nasal wash. After about 5 min, I hacked out a big blob of brownish yellow stuff, and I was fine (with the throat).

It got better after a day or two (moved down into my chest though), then it came back, and so I was out another two days. I've had a lingering cough since.

Apparently, the respiratory issues and the lingering cough are common.

The argument for anybody working in health getting the vaccine first has a lot to do with routes of exposure. They have a higher chance of contracting it through work, rather than people who may spend less of their day in contact with the general population.

The debate is worthwhile. The CPC has a lot to answer for this. It is one thing to basically lie about the state of the economy, and then continually change the story as it becomes apparent that the outcome is much worse, but it is another to try to pull the same BS when it comes to matters that can be potentially fatal to Canadians.

Two out three kids in our house are down with it right now (Well, the first is back to school after being off for a week, and the second is bedridden today).

We don't normally get the seasonal flu shot. I trust the safety of any one dose, but I'm not crazy about joining a massive experiment to find out what getting shots for twenty or forty years in row might do. That said, I think the risks are real enough that those of us in the house who do not contract it will get the vaccine. Not so much out of fear for our own lives, but certainly to help stop the spread to the more fragile.

Take care of yourself! Chicken soup, tea with lemon and honey, lots of rest, and most importantly: ignore the headlines!