“People get sick every day and people die. It is too bad, but not an emergency… Nobody is going to remember this three months later.” (Stephen Harper’s former campaign manager Tom Flanagan, CBC’s Power and Politics, November 3, 2009)
Conservative claim: Six million doses of H1N1 flu vaccine have been shipped.
The facts: While the media reports that hundreds of thousands of Canadians are sick from H1N1, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. David Butler-Jones admitted yesterday that the federal government does not know how many of the six million doses of H1N1 vaccine have been delivered to Canadians.
The $400 million set aside for pandemic response in the 2006 budget could have been used to speed up vaccine delivery. It can fund school based clinics to vaccinate children, hire back retired nurses to provide additional vaccination capacity, and get the shots into the hands of family doctors for their high-risk patients.
Conservative claim: All Canadians will have been vaccinated for H1N1 by Christmas.
The facts: Health authorities report that the vaccine will not be made available to the general public until late November, after high-risk groups and children are vaccinated. By one rough estimate, meeting the Conservatives’ goal will require the vaccination of nearly one million Canadians a day – a rate much faster than has been achieved up until now.
Conservative claim: Conservatives blame their multi-million dollar single source vaccine contract on the previous Liberal government, and blame their supplier for delays.
The facts: The Liberals built up Canada’s domestic capacity to make it possible to produce pandemic influenza vaccine domestically. The 2001 pandemic vaccine contract with Shire Biologics required the company to be constantly ready to make and sell pandemic flu vaccine to Canada, while still allowing vaccines to be ordered from other manufacturers in case of a tight supply. The 2004 Canadian Pandemic Influenza Plan stated, “Multiple suppliers should be considered in the planning process.”
In 2007, Conservative Health Minister Tony Clement revised the pandemic vaccine contract with GlaxoSmithKline and could have insisted upon multiple suppliers. Chief Public Health Officer Dr. David Butler-Jones confirmed yesterday that the government can order more vaccine from other suppliers. It failed to do so.
Conservative claim: Canadians are not being shortchanged by the export of vaccine to other countries.
The facts: There is a shortage of vaccine in Canada, but the Canadian vaccine producer has been permitted to ship its product around the world, because the government decided that they wouldn’t be able to handle the rollout of surplus vaccine to the population. They could have made plans to ramp up. Another Canadian or foreign producer could bottle excess antigen.
Conservative claim: Canada has the highest per capita number of vaccine doses.
The facts: Australia, with a population of 22 million people, had 5.5 million doses of vaccine as of September 30, more than a month ago.
