OK, let’s all admit this—public health officials, especially in Alberta where I live, have botched the distribution of the H1N1 vaccine from the get-go. Instead of starting with ONLY the folks science has shown to be at higher risk from H1N1, they said they’d vaccinate “anyone who showed up”…and then were shocked at the overwhelming numbers that did. Sure, polls showed only about half of folks asked planned to get the shot, but come on! Coundn’t they figure out that those planning to get it—more than a million and half people in AB with our population of more than 3 million—wanted the shot NOW, not later? Add in two deaths of children in Ontario in a matter of days, and you’ve now got levels of fear and panic I’ve never seen before in this country.

Anyways, I’ve had a look at who has been reading my blogposts on H1N1, and I’ve got readers from around the world, many in the US, but by far the majority are from Canada. So here’s my public service announcement:

IF you have decided to get vaccinated in Canada, and you DO NOT have an underlying health condition—especially if you are an adult and NOT pregnant--PLEASE WAIT. I know this is similar to what public health officials are saying, but let me give you some numbers, as always.

In Alberta, known underlying conditions are present in 76 per cent of hospitalized cases and 93 per cent of deaths. I just watched a live newscast from Quebec, where similar numbers were given: of the 27 deaths in that province, 24 had underlying health conditions (89%). Overall in Canada, 83.3% of females who have died have had underlying health conditions; the figure is 74.1% for males. Children under 15 have the highest hospitalization rate in Canada, at 12.1 per 100,000 (national crude hospitalization rate is 5.3 per 100,000). Of the 350 hospitalized women between 15 and 44, 93 (26.6%) were pregnant—or more than 1 in 4 hospitalized women were pregnant.

I hope that makes the wait for the shot a bit more bearable for some of you, though I know it won’t take all the fear away. In Alberta, we’ve had 5 H1N1 deaths in the past week. To put that number in perspective, Alberta has about 10% of the population of Canada. If the country as a whole had the kind of week we’ve just had here, there would have been about 50 deaths in Canada from H1N1 this past week. In reality, there has been 92 H1N1 deaths in Canada (thru October 24th) since this pandemic began last April. Yes, its been a rough week here and lineups for the vaccine are unbelievably long—as they are all around the country—but remember Albertans, 93% of deaths here had underlying conditions, or 13 of the 14 deaths. So let’s calm down and let the highest risk folks get their shots first, IF they want them, despite the incompetence of Alberta Health Services on this particular front.

As for who exactly is considered high risk, check with your provincial health authority.

And have a safe, happy, and healthy Halloween!