Mixed messages cause confusion

Poor public messaging is impeding Ontario health officials as they grapple with a lower than expected H1N1 vaccine supply, critics say.

Compounding the problem, there are 36 local health units delivering the vaccines and running their own clinics – and while some are efficient models, others are not, said Dr. Vivek Goel, CEO of the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion.

Thousands of people have waited outside Toronto’s two HIN1 vaccination clinics for hours only to be turned away, yet other cities such as Sault Ste. Marie, have been able to immunize quickly.

“Right now what we have is more of a challenge with the flow of communication with the number of vaccine doses coming in,” Goel said. “That has led to some of the different starts and what are perceived to be stops.”

Provincial political leaders say the long lineups of those waiting for their H1N1 shots outside public health clinics is the result of a poorly planned vaccination rollout and mixed messaging on who should get the shot and when.

Those in priority groups were supposed to be the first ones to get the shots, but public demand escalated after the deaths of two children in Ontario.

Dr. Arlene King, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, said she meets two or three times a week with other medical officers and they are making “real-time policy decisions” as they face the second wave of the H1N1 virus. “Sometimes there are going to be some bumps in the road but we are doing the best we can.”

“We are in a fine balance of trying to manage need, demand and supply. You sometimes don’t get it right but we are getting better.”

Ontario has had many months to plan for this pandemic and the government has dropped the ball, said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

“There is no doubt the vaccine needs to be distributed in a way that is clearly understood and more effective and efficient than in the last day or two,” said Horwath.

“A big part of it is the government’s utter failure to be able to communicate with the people of this province on how this vaccine would rollout.”

In Toronto, a city of millions of people, only two clinics were open and both were forced to close early, noted Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak. But in Winnipeg, a much smaller city, 12 clinics were open to dispense vaccine, he said.

“This is simply unacceptable,” Hudak said at Queen’s Park on Friday. “The H1N1 virus is not working 9 to 5 hours, and neither should we.”

Premier Dalton McGuinty said Ontario is doing all it can to get the vaccine out to the various public health units but the challenge is getting the doses from the federal government.

To compound matters, Ontario will now receive only 170,000 doses of adjuvanted vaccine next week and another 86,800 does of unadjuvanted vaccine for pregnant women.

“As quickly as they get it to us, we will in turn get it quickly out to the public,” McGuinty said Friday in Windsor, where he was attending the Ontario Liberal Party’s annual general meeting.

“The good news, so to speak, is 
 many more families today are interested in getting the vaccine than there were even just a few days ago,” he added.

“I know that Dr. Arlene King has agreed, for example, to have more people working at the clinics, to extend the hours. We are going to do everything that we possibly can to distribute the vaccine as quickly as we can, to as many as we can.”

But Hudak said a confused and frustrated public is proof the government’s messaging on who should get the flu shot and when is not coordinated.

“We need a significant course of correction,” he said. – Healthzone.ca