High-flying civil servants

By Charlie Gillis - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 9:03 AM - 0 Comments

Newscom/ Sandor Fizli/ Pawel Dwulit/CP

Even by the standards of a globe-trotting public-health physician, the summer and fall of 2009 was a frenzied period for Dr. David Butler-Jones. The world was bracing for the onslaught of H1N1, and Butler-Jones was in charge of this country’s preparations.

He travels a lot at the best of times, but from the moment the first case of swine flu was confirmed in Mexico in late April, the bespectacled physician single-handledly sent the federal government reservation system into overdrive. Three trips to Vancouver. Four to Toronto. One to Mexico City. Another to London, England.

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The best thing to happen to the Liberals

By Andrew Potter - Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 10:49 AM - 83 Comments

Looking for a Liberal in Ottawa last fall was like a trip into the heart of darkness. You would eventually find a crew of them, hunched over the latest polling data in some dark corner of the Centre Block, where they’d give you the 1,000-yard stare and mutter quietly about the party lacking leadership and direction. The whole miserable session culminated in the legendary Night of the Long Faces, when a group of Liberals repaired to a bar at the Chateau Laurier for a bitch session that the Toronto Star breathlessly reported as a nascent coup being mounted by Bob Rae to topple Michael Ignatieff.

Everything is relative, more so in politics, but in the early months of 2010 it is suddenly a good time to be a Liberal. It’s easy to find Liberals on the Hill these days; with the government off “recalibrating” its agenda, they are striding around like they own the place. And why not? Ever since Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament over the Christmas holidays, the polling gap between the Conservatives and the Liberals has vanished, and for the past three weeks, Ekos tracking polls have had the two parties in a dead heat.

The received wisdom is that the Tory lead (which before Christmas one pollster called “entrenched”) vanished because of public anger over the prorogation, and many pundits have suggested that Harper’s inability to pass up an opportunity to show how clever he is has backfired once again. And there certainly appears to be something to that. Most people are genuinely annoyed that Parliament is not sitting, probably for the simple reason that most people don’t get to simply decide not to go to work for two months, least of all in the dead of winter.

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It takes a village to raise an idiot, He did it for the kids and Bad times for burkas

By macleans.ca - Friday, February 12, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

It takes a village to raise an idiot
Jacques Rogge and the rest of the executive board of the International Olympic Committee have relented and will allow the Australian International Olympic Committee to fly its iconic “boxing kangaroo” flag from a balcony of the Vancouver Olympic Village. The flag was ordered removed because the IOC bans unauthorized commercial symbols, and the cartoon ’roo is trademarked, albeit only to the Australian Olympic Committee. The dispute fired up Aussies everywhere. Deputy PM Julia Gillard called it a “scandal.” Vancouver radio phone-in callers raged at the IOC’s bully tactics. IOC spokesman Mark Adams called the issue “a storm in a teacup.” Meantime, athletes are streaming to the Oz sector of the village for a photo with the giant ’roo.

He did it for the kids
It was death in the afternoon for any bull that Jairo Miguel Sànchez Alonso faced Saturday at an arena in southwest Spain. The 16-year-old killed six bulls without mussing his sparkly white suit of lights. He returned to Spain after several years apprenticing in Mexico, where there is no minimum age for fighters. He almost died there in 2007 when a bull gored him. Alonso holds no grudges. “I feel quite bad when the bull has been good and you see the expression on his face, the innocence,” he says. “He has given you his bravery.” The event, while bloody, had a softer side. It was a fundraiser for children with autism.

Bad times for burkas
French Prime Minister François Fillon announced this week he’ll deny citizenship to a Moroccan national who forces his French-born wife to wear a burka. “If this man does not want to change his attitude, he has no place in our country,” he said. Meantime, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s call for a law banning full burkas is gaining steam. He has declared the full veil and body covering “not welcome” in France, and inconsistent with the country’s values. It’s certainly not welcome in Paris post offices. Two burka-clad robbers walked into a post office in the Paris suburb of Athis Mons, an area with a large immigrant Muslim population. They pulled out handguns and stole the equivalent of $6,000.

Blades of glory
Germany’s Katarina Witt and Canada’s Elizabeth Manley met on the ice in Vancouver Sunday, 22 years after the Teutonic bombshell and Canada’s sweetheart squared off in Calgary during the 1988 Olympics. Witt won gold but Manley, under enormous home-country pressure, pulled off the skate of her life to finish second. Both women are doing television colour commentary in Vancouver, but they took a turn on the Robson Square ice rink with young members of the Coquitlam Skating Club. “We’re not here for a rematch,” joked Manley, 44. “Not at our age, I’m 20—plus tax.” Replied a razor-sharp Witt: “Oh, my God! How much are taxes here?”

Tea time in Tennessee
Cranky country singer and musical comedian Ray Stevens’s flagging career was ready for a death panel. Then the 71-year-old singer of such novelty hits as Ahab the A-rab and Gitarzan wrote We the People, a lighthearted attack on President Barack Obama’s health care initiative. The video, which shows Stevens strumming a bathroom plunger and singing, “You vote Obamacare, we’re gonna vote you outta there,” is a YouTube hit and an unofficial anthem of the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement. Stevens sang at the group’s convention in Nashville on the weekend, where Sarah Palin raised eyebrows with her $100,000 fee for giving the keynote speech. “That’s a lot of damned tea,” grumbled one delegate.

Do as I say, not as I…ahh-choo!
As deputy health minister for the Czech Republic, Michael Vit has the job of deciding whether to impose mandatory swine flu vaccinations on “all people indispensable for the functioning of the country.” The day after receiving the assignment, Vit came down with H1N1 himself. “I have muscle problems, a headache, simply all symptoms of the flu,” he said. The deputy health minister admitted he had yet to receive the vaccination. “As you see, I’m a living example.”

‘Funeral’ for friends, and strangers
Canadian orchestral rockers Arcade Fire made it to the Super Bowl last weekend, when the group’s stirring anthem Wake Up, from their hit CD Funeral, was used in a series of NFL promo ads. While the group is protective of licensing its music, they had their reasons in this case. They turned over the fat licensing fee to Partners in Health, an agency with deep roots in Haiti. Band member Régine Chassagne’s family came from the island. She expressed her grief in an article in Britain’s Guardian newspaper: “I am mourning people I know. People I don’t know. People who are still trapped under rubble and won’t be rescued in time.”

Broom versus stick
Icy, obsessed with winning and not above the occasional cheap shot. Yes, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and hockey are a match made in heaven. Hockey is “deeply reflective of the character of the nation,” he explained in a pre-Olympic interview with Sports Illustrated. Harper, who has studied the origins of the sport, said it contributes to “a uniquely Canadian sense of belonging in a community across the country.” Opposition Leader Michael Ignatieff waxes poetic about a different sport: curling. Naturally, he identifies with the skip. “It’s the leadership and the precision, and the quiet,” he told the Globe and Mail. Apparently he’s not the sort of skip who shouts unseemly commands like, “Hurry, hurry hard.”

Very, very teed off
A Kelowna, B.C., entrepreneur is cashing in on Tiger Woods’s extramarital mayhem. Mike Caldwell has produced the Mistress Collection, a boxed set of 12 golf balls, each bearing a portrait of one of Woods’s mistresses. “He likes to play a round with them…and now you can, too!” notes his website, tailofthetiger.com. Caldwell says he sold 1,500 sets at US$54.90 in the first six days. Less than impressed is Joslyn James, an adult film star and alleged Woods mistress. She called a news conference to denounce the balls as hurtful and in bad taste. “It bothered me to think that someone would be standing with a dangerous club in their hands hitting a ball with my photo on it,” she said. She then showed her sensitive side by releasing 100 tawdry text messages she said she received from Woods.

You don’t want a visit by Oscar
Oscar the cat has a near infallible ability to detect which of the patients in the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, R.I., is next to die, says Dr. David Dosa, a geriatrician. When Oscar curls up with a patient, staff know to phone the next of kin. “It’s like he’s on a vigil,” says Dosa. Such insight would come as no surprise to cat owners, who are themselves terribly smart. Certainly smarter than dog owners, according to a study by Dr. Jane Murray at the University of Bristol. Winston Churchill was a cat lover. Paris Hilton loves dogs. Want more proof? Cat owners (if anyone really owns a cat) are 1.36 times more likely than dog owners to hold a university degree. They’re also 100 per cent less likely to have to follow behind their pet and scoop droppings off the sidewalk.

Gay but not cheerful
The headline in the Seattle Weekly says it all: “Gay, mentally challenged biracial male cheerleader claims discrimination.” All that high school student Benjamin Grundy wants is to shake his pom-poms like the girls on the squad at Garfield-Palouse High School in tiny Palouse, Wash. Instead, the cheer coach suggested he’d make a great mascot. He was eventually given a cheerleader’s top but denied the rest of the uniform, pom-poms, and the right to join the dance routine. “I was reduced to standing there and moving my arms,” he says. The school board denies discrimination, but Benjamin’s mother, Suzanne Grundy, is pressing the case with the ACLU and her congressman. “The combination of a biracial, mentally challenged gay male may be too much for them,” she told the local TV station.

L’état c’est moi
Quebec’s Lieutenant-Governor Pierre Duchesne has revived a tradition that ended 44 years ago—awarding medals, in gold, silver and bronze, and bearing his coat of arms, to those making contributions to their communities. The practice of awarding such medals ended in 1966 after Quebec nationalists condemned the symbolic tie with the monarchy. Duchesne has no such qualms: he also invoked royal privilege to avoid testifying before a national assembly committee on how he spends some $1 million annually in taxpayer money. His refusal to testify was condemned by all sides of the legislature.

Disharmony in the house of Wang
It was Hong Kong feng shui master Tony Chan’s skills in arranging buildings to create a positive life force that drew Chan to the eccentric, pigtailed property magnate Nina Wang. He began a 15-year affair with Wang, 23 years his senior. Now, he’s accused of arranging her $4-billion fortune in a manner auspicious to himself. When she died at 69 in 2007, he claimed to be her sole heir. Her family contested the will, and he’s charged with forgery.

She also has a Ph.D. in thankless tasks
Leila Ghannam, a former Palestinian intelligence officer, is the first woman governor of Ramallah, the unofficial capital of the West Bank. Her challenge is to quash a resurgence by hard-liners in Hamas. “My intelligence experience, like my degree in psychology, helps me carry out my job,” she says.

Shaking all over?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 12:30 PM - 1 Comment

There is a great deal of good news in Ottawa’s recent end-of-year report on the H1N1 flu. But would you want to shake on it?

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, most regions in the country now report either sporadic or no evidence of H1N1. Hospitalizations have been falling sharply since mid-November and the flu threat appears to be in rapid decline in Canada, as well as the rest of the world. While any death from disease is a tragedy, the toll of the flu seems substantially less than the worst-case scenarios initially presented. Whether this is due to overstated risks or sound public health management is unclear. What is obvious, however, is that the most significant impact of last year’s H1N1 flu scare is the threat it still poses to one of our oldest and most recognized public customs—shaking hands.

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The students who cried swine flu

By Emma Teitel - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 3:00 PM - 14 Comments

Thanks to H1N1, Section 16.8 of Dalhousie University’s Academic Regulations, regarding medical certificates in the case of illness  (required to miss classes and assignments with no penalty incurred) has been modified. Since September, anyone with “flu-like symptoms” has been encouraged to stay far, far away from campus, no questions asked. It seems for now swine flu has killed the sick note at Dal. And other universities across the country have put similar policies into effect.

At first it seemed like a pure Godsend. Free to sign their own notes, students quickly expanded the definition of flu-like symptoms to include smoker’s cough, hangovers and an insatiable appetite for TLC’s Cake Boss. One Dal philosophy major has had the virus twice—once in Logic and once in Deduction—and is planning to contract it again before her Epistemology exam. “It’s supposed to come in waves,” she says.

Or not.  Recently the University of Western Ontario started requiring infected students to enter their names into an online database, which could possibly red-flag multiple bouts of the flu.  For students a new question loomed:  how many times could they cry swine flu; and if they did malinger, what happened if they got the real thing?

Strangely, not much. John Doersken, vice provost in academic programs and students at UWO, maintains detecting fakes was never the reason for the database. “The system is in place so that we can provide our public health unit with data on how serious the pandemic is. We can tell on any given day how many students are away on influenza like illnesses.” Or at least, how many claim to be. There’s no telling, admits Doersken, how many students enter their names under false pretences.

And despite acknowledging that some students are likely using the pandemic for their own benefit, Susan Spence Wach, associate vice-president of academic programs at Dal, says their revised no-sick-note policy will remain in effect for now.  “Our main concern is with flu prevention and the care of our student population.” In other words, having some people take advantage of the revised policy is better than what would occur if the policy were left unchanged.  “People with flu-like symptoms,” says Spence Wach, “should not be going out to get sick notes. They should be at home.”
Though no official system is in place, data is also being collected at Dal, says Spence Wach: “On a weekly basis I get reports on student illness; only numbers, never names.”

So while it looks like students jumping on the H1N1 wagon won’t be facing any thorny disciplinary problems, they’re probably the contributing factors in some erroneous public health research—just another chapter in the swine flu fiasco. “For the most part, students aren’t abusing it,” says one Western undergrad, who prefers to remain anonymous.  “However, I have heard of some students who are.  Namely, myself and my roommates.”

This Week: Good news/Bad news

By macleans.ca - Friday, November 27, 2009 at 10:45 AM - 3 Comments

A week in the life of twilight
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new box-office champion. The Twilight Saga: New Moon grossed $72.7 million on its first day in theatres last Friday—the previous best was The Dark Knight’s $67.2 million. Screaming teenagers lined up for midnight screenings to find out what would happen to vampire Edward and vampire-lover Bella (though most already knew the outcome from reading and rereading the novel). Said teens then proceeded to scream throughout the movie.

GOOD NEWS

Tough on child porn
The Harper government introduced a smart new bill aimed at curtailing child pornography on the Internet. Under the tough legislation, Web-hosting companies and Internet service providers that fail to report pornographic content on their servers would be punished. This is the most logical way to get to those vile people who post child porn online: service providers are the closest link to unmasking this underground scourge, because they, in effect, carry the content (even if they don’t know it). If ISPs are scared into cracking down on what appears on their servers, the battle against child porn will be half-won already.

Bittersweet swap
Israel and Hamas appear to be closing in on a deal that would see the Palestinian terrorist group release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped by Palestinians in June 2006. Israel would offer 1,000 Palestinians currently being held in Israeli jails in return, including alleged murderer Marwan Barghouti, currently serving five life terms in an Israeli prison. The swap, should it happen, would be bittersweet for Israel: while Shalit’s return would be cause for celebration, Barghouti would likely assume a top leadership role in Fatah, and perhaps replace the moderate Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian leader, a move that could bring Fatah and Hamas together. In the long run, then, this deal could actually hamper Middle East peace.

GST, American-style
Does America need a GST? Some economists are now arguing that instituting a federal value-added tax could be the answer to bringing down America’s huge deficit. This won’t sound like good news to consumers—Americans will certainly find a VAT-style tax just as annoying as Canadians find the GST—but it makes good economic sense, and deserves to be given due consideration. Let’s hope that aggressive provincial politicians from our side of the border don’t turn Washington off the idea.

Jon & Kate abate
The saga of Jon and Kate Gosselin and their eight young children is, thankfully, over—their TV show, Jon & Kate Plus 8, aired for the last time on Tuesday night after three seasons. We were never fans of the older Gosselins—though the kids are inarguably cute to watch—but the public squabbling after their marriage ended earlier this year was too much to take. The parents ended up looking like selfish brats—their kids were the real heroes. Jon and Kate’s messy divorce will surely continue, but at least not in prime time. We expect Oprah Winfrey will find a much classier way to sign off when her show ends in 2011.

BAD NEWS

Vexing vaccine
Swine flu confusion continues. While some experts have opined that the worst of the H1N1 pandemic is now behind us, others are warning against over-prescribing the vaccine. The World Health Organization also seems utterly confused: it’s recommending that doctors give out the vaccine to anyone showing symptoms of swine flu, and at the same time recommends that healthy people with mild symptoms not be given the vaccine. As if that weren’t enough, the WHO also announced on Tuesday that it has seen an unusually high number of severe allergic reactions to the vaccine in Canada.

Election problems
Iraqis were preparing to go to the polls in January, but now it looks like they will have to wait to cast their votes. Parliament has been unable to pass an election law, because of objections from Sunnis that they will be under-represented—and Sunni Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi has threatened to veto the law. (Iraq’s Kurds have also protested the election on the same basis, though a recent amendment to the election law seems to have satisfied them.) With the United States set to begin withdrawing troops next year, a constitutional crisis is the last thing that the war-torn country can handle. If there is to be success in Iraq, this election must occur on time, and it must be free of corruption. There is no alternative.

Gore vs. Alberta
Al Gore is at it again, and this time he’s inconveniencing Albertans. In a speech on Tuesday, the former vice-president (and almost-president) opined that oil extraction from Alberta’s tar sands presents a serious environmental problem. This after he pasted the sands project in Rolling Stone magazine in 2006, saying, “They have to tear up four tons of landscape, all for one barrel of oil. It is truly nuts. But, you know, junkies find veins in their toes.” We don’t buy Gore’s doom-and-gloom scenario (odd, isn’t it, that his latest funereal pronouncements come right after he released a new climate book), and we hope Alberta’s hard-working population won’t suffer because of his reckless speechifying.

Idol no more
Former American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert embarrassed himself—and offended a whole lot of others—on Sunday night at the American Music Awards.His raunchy performance included pantomimed fellatio and a make-out session with a keyboard player. If you weren’t already convinced that pop music has become more about selling sex and less about actual talent, we now rest our case.

FACE OF THE WEEK

Why The Airlines Won't Let You Call In Sick

By Sarah Dawson, Takeoffeh.com - Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 3:17 PM - 2 Comments

Last week, news headlines thundered about an Air Canada passenger who informed the airline she had H1N1 and expected sympathetic assistance in rebooking her trip. Air Canada merely offered to change her travel date for a large fee. The passenger – who believed she was doing the right thing by letting the airline know – was shocked at the treatment.

Most airlines such as Air Canada and WestJet are actually under no obligation to re-accommodate passengers on another flight whether they suffer from H1N1 or a stomach bug. Nor will they offer a full refund if the conditions of their ticket do not allow any cancellations.

For the airlines and tour operators, it all comes down to basic economics, and the effect supply and demand has on selling prices. Imagine a passenger booking a flight for $99 in a seat sale in January, and then calling to change the flight to a March Break departure when everyone else on that flight will have paid at least $699.

With tour operators, where there is a hotel booked as well as an air seat, changing the original ticket can have financial implications for the tour operator. As such, they tend to charge higher change fees and cancellation penalties because the hotels they deal with dock them for holding the room. For instance, if you cancel a booking in early December for a Christmas holiday, chances are you will not get any money back because the hotel will charge the tour operator a full penalty.

A little research before making any changes is extremely advisable. There will almost always be a difference in selling prices, so be prepared to pay more. As far  as a refund is concerned — they may deduct a change fee, but is not unreasonable to ask.

The key terms to look for are: full cancellations allowed up to departure, or no (low) change fees, whatever the circumstances. With respect to H1N1, if the provider’s policy does not state specifically that cancellations or changes are allowed if the passenger has H1N1, then they are probably not.

For any packages booked with a tour operator, there are only a few companies currently offering H1N1 protection. Sunwing offers a “Worry Free” cancellation plan for $49 per person, allowing cancellations up to 3 hours prior to the flight departure for any reason. Signature offers a very similar “Care-Free Cancellation Waiver” plan for $50 or $60 per person, allowing cancellations to 24 hours prior to the flight departure. WestJet Vacations allow cancellations outside of 21 days for a $75 fee. While passengers may not get cash refunds, receiving the full booking value in future travel credit is certainly reasonable.

Passengers should also look toward travel insurance as a means of protection. RBC Insurance, the largest provider of travel insurance in the Canadian market, confirmed to Take Off eh! that their Trip Cancellation Insurance does cite H1N1, or similar flu-like illness, as an “emergency medical condition and the policy holder would be eligible for the reimbursement of the non-refundable portion of their prepaid travel arrangements, subject to the terms and conditions of the policy”. This requires confirmation from a physician, as with any other medical condition. The coverage applies as long as the passenger does not have the H1N1 virus as a pre-condition, or made a booking for travel to a destination for which the government has issued a formal H1N1 warning after the warning was issued.

In short, whether people have the flu or any other infectious condition, in many instances, the claim can be difficult to prove. It’s a very murky area for airlines and tour operators to navigate and set fair policies for. But bear in mind that an air carrier also reserves the right to deny boarding to someone who is visibly not well enough to fly.

From the airline and tour operators’ perspective, is it fair to single out any type of flu over say, asthma or strep throat? And why should travel have to follow different rules than any other service providers such as theatres or sports vernues? Travellers have to protect themselves with the tools available to them, or simply not travel.

By: Sarah Dawson

Photo Credit: macky_ch

Mitchel Raphael on who's in charge if the PM gets swine flu

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 10:00 AM - 1 Comment

Which MPs are getting the swine flu shot?

When it comes to the H1N1 vaccine, some MPs are weighing their options. Trade Minister Stockwell Day says he will talk to his doctor; he never gets even the regular flu shots. Justin Trudeau has also never had a regular flu shot, but is considering getting the H1N1 vaccine since he is now a father. NDP Leader Jack Layton and his MP wife, Olivia Chow, always get their flu shots and will get the H1N1 vaccine when it is widely available. Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla, who is also a chiropractor, will get it too. She also always gets her flu shots. Because of his asthma, Stephen Harper would be considered in the high-risk category, but he plans to wait a while. (Eventually the PM and his family will all be vaccinated against H1N1.) Should the PM become incapacitated for any reason, not just swine flu, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon has been chosen by Harper to take over, since the Tories have no deputy PM. Continue…

The per capita boast (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 12:43 PM - 27 Comments

It has now been two weeks since Leona Aglukkaq’s office was asked to provide evidence to support the claim that Canada had the highest per capita supply of H1N1 vaccine. Such evidence has not yet been provided.

In the three sessions of Question Period since the Liberal opposition asserted this claim to be incorrect, the government has avoided making a specific per capita claim to this country’s vaccine supply. The closest Ms. Aglukkaq has come to the assertion was in this exchange last Friday. Continue…

The Commons: Picking up the crisis where we left it

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 16, 2009 at 5:42 PM - 27 Comments

The Scene. So where were we? Ah yes, that global pandemic.

“Mr. Speaker, the last time the House sat, the Minister of Health claimed that every Canadian who wanted the H1N1 vaccine would receive it before Christmas,” Carolyn Bennett recapped. “Now, she is saying that the rollout will take up to 12 more weeks and run well into next February.”

So it is for the Health Minister. If not for her having to periodically stand and state things as fact, her critics would likely have little to complain about.

“Why,” asked Ms. Bennett, “did the minister mislead the House and why did she not tell Canadians the truth?”

The Prime Minister, the Transport Minister and the Industry Minister were all away this day, so Leona Aglukkaq was offered the chance here to answer the question herself.

“Mr. Speaker, again, we have said all along that we would try and complete the vaccination program by December,” she said.

Her use of the term “try” was perhaps notable, at least in so much as it was not employed two weeks ago when the Minister told the House that, “every Canadian who wants the vaccine will be able to receive the vaccine by Christmas.”

But close enough. Continue…

The flu shot screw-up

By Michael Friscolanti and Cathy Gulli - Monday, November 16, 2009 at 8:00 AM - 34 Comments

Canada is barely a few weeks into the biggest mass immunization campaign in the nation’s history, and by now everyone has heard—or worse, lived—a flu shot horror story. “It’s been chaotic,” admits Dr. David Scheifele, director of the Vaccine Evaluation Centre in Vancouver, which is associated with the B.C. Children’s Hospital. His own experience is no exception. Recently, Scheifele ordered nurses at his hospital to administer the pandemic H1N1 vaccine to the highest priority health care workers, those in the emergency room, intensive care unit, and labour and delivery area. He knew there was a limited supply of shots, so nurses visited the targeted groups with a mobile cart. “We thought that was really smart. No advertising. This was a sensible way to interact with the people who needed the vaccines.”

But pandemonium erupted. “Legions of people were basically crashing the party,” he recalls, including non-priority clerical and medical staff. There was such a “clamour” and so many “irate people incensed that they were being turned away” that the nurses had to return the next day with a security guard. “It is preposterous, the notion that nurses delivering a vaccine would be mobbed and fear for their safety,” he says. “Who could ever have imagined a scenario like that?” Continue…

Nanos, nit-picked (UPDATED)

By Andrew Potter - Friday, November 13, 2009 at 7:39 AM - 10 Comments

UPDATE: The tables are now up at the IRPP

***
Free-agent pollster Nik Nanos has a new study out with the IRPP, looking at attitudes toward H1N1. According to the polling analysis, “Seven Canadians in ten aren’t at all worried or are not very worried about H1N1, despite saturation coverage in the media about Ottawa’s ability to provide an adequate supply of vaccine and the provinces’ capacity to meet the demand.”

I’ll take his word for it — I have not yet been able to find the complete tables on the site. (Can you? I must be looking in the wrong place).

There is one weird passage in the analysis. Nanos writes:

Although a pandemic in name, public opinion at the time of the Nanos-Policy Options survey indicates that with a strong majority of Canadians not worried about H1N1, this may be perceived as more of a nasty flu than a pandemic.

The contrast between “nasty flu” and “pandemic” seems to be a category mistake. “Pandemic” is not a measure of the severity of the illness or of how sick it makes you, it is a combined measure of the novelty of the illness in the population, its global distribution, and its infectiousness. The seasonal flu is a pandemic, regardless of how nasty or nice it is. Here’s the wikipedia def of pandemic.

This is a common mistake. I suspect it comes from a false assumption that the word “pandemic” is a combination of “panic” and “epidemic” — an epidemic so nasty we should panic!

Anyhoo, here’s the Nanos press release:

Continue…

'At this point there is no program to vaccinate detainees'

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 9:30 PM - 16 Comments

Global gets a statement from National Defence.

“Vaccinations against H1N1 are being offered to members of the Canadian forces and Canadian civilian personnel deployed in Afghanistan. The Canadian forces are providing appropriate medical care to those in their custody. Offering vaccinations to detainees for H1N1 would be based on medical need and at this point there is no program to vaccinate detainees. No vaccine has been provided to any detainee.”

Canadian Press gets the same statement and reviews the claims.

About those Geneva Conventions (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 6:55 PM - 5 Comments

An exchange from last week’s meeting of Parliament’s special committee on the mission in Afghanistan. The full and official transcript of the meeting is not yet online.

Mr. Laurie Hawn (Edmonton Centre – Conservative – Parliamentary Sec. to Minister of Defence): You mentioned that the Afghan prisoners are not POWs but we’re treating them like POWs. That suggests to me that we are perhaps going above and beyond what would be our legal international obligations. Is that a fair statement or not?

BGen Kenneth W. Watkin: One of the challenges with respect to, particularly contemporary armed conflict is so few are between states. The vast majority of the treaty law is with respect to one state fighting another state. With respect for instance to the four Geneva Conventions and in particular Geneva Convention 3 that deals with POWs and Geneva Convention 4 that deals with civilians, there’s a set treaty regime. There’s Common Article 3 to the four conventions which will provide for non-international armed conflicts.

There is a treaty and additional protocols to the Geneva Conventions which specifically deals with non-international armed conflict. In terms of customary international law which relies that assessment on the treaties themselves, that sets a well established and a high standard of treatment. Certainly the approach of the Canadian Forces is a matter of doctrine is to apply that high standard in terms of anyone who they detain and in that is standards of humanity and care in treating.

About those Geneva Conventions

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 4:44 PM - 35 Comments

The military says prisoners in Afghanistan will be offered the H1N1 vaccine. The military says this is in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq says this is outrageous. Canadian Press says Canada doesn’t recognize the mission in Afghanistan as falling under the Geneva Conventions.

I confess some confusion. But here are the Geneva Conventions. And here is an excerpt from a joint statement issued a year ago by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

First, we need to ensure security in the five southern Afghan provinces. This is where Canada has just recently transferred command of ISAF forces to the Netherlands. There is still hard work to be done there with boots on the ground. We are confident that Allies understand the importance of standing together and ensuring that ISAF has the forces, resources and flexibility for success in these provinces. It is our shared interest to always adhere to International Law. We operate in strict accordance with Geneva conventions. That will also improve NATO’s image in that part of the world.

The per capita boast

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 2:46 PM - 72 Comments

Over the course of five Question Periods, from October 30 through November 4, three cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister combined to assure the House on 20 separate occasions that Canada had the highest per capita supply of H1N1 vaccine.

On Thursday though, the official opposition countered that Australia was ahead of Canada on that count. Asked for evidence, they pointed to this press release from the Australian Minister for Health and Aging. That release, dated Sept. 30, states that Australian authorities had distributed 5.5 million doses of the vaccine for a population of 22 million people—covering 25% of the population. Canada, by last week, had distributed six million doses for 33 million people—covering 18.2% of the population.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq’s office was asked last week to supply the data that supports the government’s claim. They have not yet passed on such information. When they do, it will be posted here. In the latest response, received yesterday, the minister’s director of communications said the department was “having some issues releasing this as some is confidential information.”

This week's travel news

By Bruce Parkinson, Takeoffeh.com - Monday, November 9, 2009 at 10:38 AM - 0 Comments

This Week’s Take offers you a capsule summary of the high and low lights of TakeOffeh.com’s Daily Dispatches from the past seven days.

Navigating The Hotel Rate Maze
There are many ways to search for a hotel, but which one will get you the best price? The New York Times decided to find out in an unscientific test of five different Big Apple hotels, using four different booking methods – the chain’s website, a 3rd party site, directly with the hotel and an auction site. Only one hotel’s rates did not vary, no matter which method was used. The upscale Four Seasons consistently stuck to its price of $855 per night. At the Ritz Carlton New York, Central Park, a phone call to a reservation agent saw the rate drop $100 from Internet pricing – to $695 per night. At the Courtyard New York Manhattan/Times Square South, online agency Expedia beat the other methods, including Marriott’s own website and the hotel’s front desk staff, by $57 at $322 per night. The lesson of the exercise is that it pays to shop around, even within a hotel chain’s own website. TakeOffeh recently searched the ‘Best Available Rate’ for a Toronto airport hotel on the brand’s website, and was quoted $149. A further search unearthed a CAA rate of $129. Digging even deeper, a ‘Hot Deal’ for the property on the same website offered an $89.99 rate. 40% less, for the same room, on the same night, on the same website! It’s no wonder we’re all confused. Continue…

And finally, a pun

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, November 6, 2009 at 11:29 PM - 35 Comments

Speaking to reporters after QP today, Liberal David McGuinty adds what has obviously been missing from the H1N1 discussion to date.

Bonjour.  Hello, everyone.  I’d like to start making a few comments about the state of H1N1.  We have come to the conclusion that what we’re facing now in this Conservative government is a plandemic.

Compared to what?

By Andrew Coyne - Friday, November 6, 2009 at 8:28 PM - 71 Comments

H1N1 overplayed by media, public health: MDs

Public health officials and journalists have overstated the importance of the swine flu, a former Ontario chief medical officer of health says.

Dr. Richard Schabas, chief medical officer of health for Hastings and Prince Edward Counties in eastern Ontario, said the H1N1 influenza outbreak needs to be put into proper perspective.

About 200,000 people die in Canada every year from all causes combined, including about 4,000 from seasonal flu.

“By the time all the dust has settled on H1N1, somewhere between 200 and 300 people will have died in this country,” Schabas said Thursday during a panel on media coverage of H1N1 on CBC-TV’s The National.

The panel also looked at the front-page coverage given to the death of Evan Frustaglio, a 13-year-old hockey player from Toronto. Evan died on the eve of the H1N1 vaccine becoming available, and demand for the vaccine jumped overnight, catching health officials by surprise.

A healthy child in Canada is about 20 times more likely to be killed by a car than by the H1N1 virus, Schabas said, but that isn’t going to make the national news…

So, a wildly over-played “crisis” to begin with. What of the other main media story-line, the allegedly incompetent handling of the crisis by public health authorities, notably the feds?

A great many commenters on this site seem quite certain they know how fast authorities “should have” responded, when vaccinations “should have” begun, etc. They are, of course, talking through their hats: they have no idea how long it takes to develop a vaccine, what sorts of consultations governments are obliged to engage in before deploying them, what sort of testing they have to undergo, etc.

Neither do I. But it seems to me the only sensible way to measure these things is in relative terms. Is 200 deaths a lot, or a little? Set beside the 4,000 who die every year of ordinary flu, it looks less terrifying. LIkewise, a plausible benchmark for how long something “should have” taken is how long it took in other countries. That’s not giving anybody a “pass.” You can still fail even if you’re graded on a bell curve.
Continue…

Who's NOT jumping the vaccination queue

By macleans.ca - Friday, November 6, 2009 at 11:47 AM - 3 Comments

Among all the stories of flu-shot queue-jumping by, among others, NHL hockey players and the families of health-care professionals, here’s a story about a surprising reluctance to move to the front of the line. Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health, hasnt had the shot yet. And he says key people in his sort of job don’t deserve early immunization. “Not yet, were not in the risk groups,” Strang told the Halifax Chronicle. “We have a vaccine shortage,” he explained. “That’s an indication of how seriously we take the principle of those at risk of severe disease go first.”

The Chronicle Herald

Coyne v. Wells on guns and germs

By macleans.ca - Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 7:30 PM - 20 Comments

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They were late on account of they were early

By Andrew Coyne - Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 6:12 PM - 72 Comments

From today’s Globe:

Fewer than half of the available doses of H1N1 vaccine have been administered to Canadians, leaving millions of vials in warehouses or health-unit fridges across the country while people anxiously wait for their shots.

By the end of the week, 6.5 million doses of vaccines will be in circulation, with at least 1.8 million to come next week, according to federal officials.

However, numbers compiled from government sources show that provincial authorities have so far injected fewer than three million doses, or less than half of the available supply.

While blame for the lack of progress in getting needles into arms has fallen on everyone from the federal government to the provinces and the vaccine maker, public health officials said yesterday that the provinces weren’t ready because they thought Ottawa’s approval process would go more slowly.

Perry Kendall, British Columbia’s public health officer, said delivery of the shots is lagging because of Ottawa’s quicker than expected approval of the H1N1 vaccine. The infrastructure for administering the inoculations, which includes volunteers and vaccinators, was ready to begin rolling on Nov. 9, but Health Canada gave its approval the week of Oct. 26.

So there you have it: the reason for the flu-shot lineups is not that the federal government was slow to order the vaccines, but because the feds moved too quickly for the provinces. More doses delivered, faster, would have only meant bigger stockpiles in provincial warehouses — according to provincial officials.

And that’s about all we’ll be hearing about that.

The Commons: In joyful strains then let us sing, Advance Australia Fair

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 5:44 PM - 17 Comments

The Scene. Like a young man on the verge of a break from school—and indeed the House will not be in session next week—the Prime Minister seemed lighter this day. Rising from his seat before Question Period, he stopped by to visit with John Baird and Chuck Strahl, the three demonstrably laughing at something or other the Prime Minister had to say. Returning to his spot, Mr. Harper chuckled with Lawrence Cannon about something on Jim Prentice’s BlackBerry.

Yes, indeed, all was fun and frivolous. And then Bob Rae stood up.

“Mr. Speaker, we now know that more than half of the vaccines that have been produced are in fact in storage and not in people’s arms,” the Liberal reported. “Experts are also telling us that the peak of the epidemic is expected to be at the end of November and not at Christmas, so I would like to ask the Prime Minister this: What exactly is going to change to ensure that Canadians in fact are inoculated before the end of November?”

The Prime Minister rose to respond, appearing largely unperturbed by Mr. Rae’s suggestion that something was amiss. Continue…

Justin Peter Ronald Bouvier 1993-2009

By Jen Cutts - Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 2:20 PM - 9 Comments

Justin Peter Ronald Bouvier was born on Nov. 3, 1993, in Timmins, Ont., to Peter, a city bus driver, and Lori-Anne, a homemaker. The youngest in a blended family of seven children, Justin was a happy arrival for brother Harvey, who had five older sisters. Harvey had to wait for his new playmate, though; Justin was born three weeks premature and had pneumonia, and was sent to the McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton. Once Justin did come home, Harvey was disappointed that his baby brother didn’t already know how “to play cars like I wanted him to.”

Justin was playing soccer with his brother, though, “as soon as he could kick a ball,” says sister Tanya. He was small but energetic, always running around, she says. “I told him, ‘With those muscular calves, you’re gonna be a soccer star.’ ” Harvey and Justin also joined karate, and, with their friend Josh, liked to pretend to be the crime-fighting brothers from the 3 Ninjas movies. Justin also loved to draw, and once made a guitar out of “whatever he could find, paper plates, straws, dental floss for the strings,” says Tanya. Continue…