How NOT to handle a health crisis:
I HATE MY PROVINCE SO GODDAMN MUCH RIGHT NOW. Let me list the reasons why I fucking hate Alberta at the moment:
1. They've had many months to plan for how to handle the H1N1 flu vaccinations once shipments arrived.
2. But unlike other provinces in Canada, Alberta did NOT open clinics to high-risk categories of patients FIRST. No, Alberta tried to demonstrate its great resources and generosity by opening free clinics TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC FIRST.
3. Apparently the idea was that healthy people would have the good sense and sense of common decency to stay home and let others who really NEED the vaccine go get it first. Yeah. In the midst of a national panic. THAT WORKED.
4. Oh, and did I mention that Alberta Health has been recommending everyone get the flu shots? And emphasizing that no one would be turned away from the clinics?
5. In Calgary - a city of a million people! - there were four clinics. FOUR. With line-ups that stretched for blocks and took 3-6 hours to get through. Late last week, they started turning people away at ten in the morning because they already had the maximum number of people they could handle in line. People were lining up at 1 a.m. to get in.
6. Calgary finally got a fifth clinic open - but only for pregnant women and the elderly, basically.
7. THEY STARTED TO RUN OUT OF THE VACCINE.
8. SO THEY CLOSED THE FUCKING CLINICS.
9. When they re-open, they will ONLY be for high-risk people. Like, fucking FINALLY. But they'll still probably run out of the vaccine.
10. The next batch of the vaccine won't be available for *mumble* weeks after they run out. No clear word on that.
11. The province is nevertheless insisting that this run of vaccinations was a "success." Why? Because thousands of people have been vaccinated. Yeah, thousands who are either able to miss school (at-risk age groups) or not in school, and who are mostly healthy enough to stand in line for 6 hours. And probably would never have contracted it anyway. That's what my province is calling a "success."
12. The H1N1 flu is on the rise in my city, helped along by the fact that the overworked medical system is struggling just to screen people and keep up with patients.
Yeah. That's the grand tally right now.
I know I live in a country where I am at least able to get the vaccine. I should count myself lucky. But it is so very, very hard to know that this could have been handled so much better. That vast amounts of the vaccine didn't have to have been given out FIRST to people who probably don't need it.
I have two respiratory issues (asthma and the tendency to develop SPs), my mother has asthma, and my sister has a heart condition. I am always out of the house, either working in customer service or surrounded by the relatively at-risk 18-24 age group. Obviously, I should get the vaccine; but I can't. Not with those line-ups last week, and I have exams in the mornings most of THIS week. I would go today, but the clinics are STILL CLOSED until Tuesday.
It's seriously making me cry right now that I might not have hope of getting this vaccine for several weeks. (I mean, christ, when they get the next shipment, I'll probably be right up to finals!) Considering the stories I'm reading about people with no health conditions at all simply dropping dead from this thing, I think my chances of surviving it (if I get it) with my respiratory problems are very low. And what if I bring it home to my mother and sister?
I have never bothered to pay attention to any big health kerfuffle in the past; this is the first time I will say that I am genuinely scared.
I'm trying to take comfort in the fact that the actual chances of getting it in the first place are still low.
1. They've had many months to plan for how to handle the H1N1 flu vaccinations once shipments arrived.
2. But unlike other provinces in Canada, Alberta did NOT open clinics to high-risk categories of patients FIRST. No, Alberta tried to demonstrate its great resources and generosity by opening free clinics TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC FIRST.
3. Apparently the idea was that healthy people would have the good sense and sense of common decency to stay home and let others who really NEED the vaccine go get it first. Yeah. In the midst of a national panic. THAT WORKED.
4. Oh, and did I mention that Alberta Health has been recommending everyone get the flu shots? And emphasizing that no one would be turned away from the clinics?
5. In Calgary - a city of a million people! - there were four clinics. FOUR. With line-ups that stretched for blocks and took 3-6 hours to get through. Late last week, they started turning people away at ten in the morning because they already had the maximum number of people they could handle in line. People were lining up at 1 a.m. to get in.
6. Calgary finally got a fifth clinic open - but only for pregnant women and the elderly, basically.
7. THEY STARTED TO RUN OUT OF THE VACCINE.
8. SO THEY CLOSED THE FUCKING CLINICS.
9. When they re-open, they will ONLY be for high-risk people. Like, fucking FINALLY. But they'll still probably run out of the vaccine.
10. The next batch of the vaccine won't be available for *mumble* weeks after they run out. No clear word on that.
11. The province is nevertheless insisting that this run of vaccinations was a "success." Why? Because thousands of people have been vaccinated. Yeah, thousands who are either able to miss school (at-risk age groups) or not in school, and who are mostly healthy enough to stand in line for 6 hours. And probably would never have contracted it anyway. That's what my province is calling a "success."
12. The H1N1 flu is on the rise in my city, helped along by the fact that the overworked medical system is struggling just to screen people and keep up with patients.
Yeah. That's the grand tally right now.
I know I live in a country where I am at least able to get the vaccine. I should count myself lucky. But it is so very, very hard to know that this could have been handled so much better. That vast amounts of the vaccine didn't have to have been given out FIRST to people who probably don't need it.
I have two respiratory issues (asthma and the tendency to develop SPs), my mother has asthma, and my sister has a heart condition. I am always out of the house, either working in customer service or surrounded by the relatively at-risk 18-24 age group. Obviously, I should get the vaccine; but I can't. Not with those line-ups last week, and I have exams in the mornings most of THIS week. I would go today, but the clinics are STILL CLOSED until Tuesday.
It's seriously making me cry right now that I might not have hope of getting this vaccine for several weeks. (I mean, christ, when they get the next shipment, I'll probably be right up to finals!) Considering the stories I'm reading about people with no health conditions at all simply dropping dead from this thing, I think my chances of surviving it (if I get it) with my respiratory problems are very low. And what if I bring it home to my mother and sister?
I have never bothered to pay attention to any big health kerfuffle in the past; this is the first time I will say that I am genuinely scared.
I'm trying to take comfort in the fact that the actual chances of getting it in the first place are still low.