Via the Ottawa Citizen: H1N1 death toll grows, as problems, scandals plague vaccination efforts. Excerpt:
The toll of the H1N1 virus in Canada continued to grow Sunday, as health officials in Newfoundland and Labrador confirmed that province's third death linked to the virus.
The death of a 63-year-old woman from Labrador, who died Saturday night in hospital and who had "multiple underlying medical conditions," according to the local health authority, came as problems and controversy continued to haunt this country's massive vaccination effort.
In Montreal, the executive director of the Jewish General Hospital denied Saturday that 200 top financial donors were hand-picked to be vaccinated in the last two weeks, ahead of the rest of the population.
"It just isn't true," Hartley Stern said of a Montreal Gazette article that reported that "elite donors" were given priority for vaccination against the H1N1 flu virus. "I never ever authorized people to get vaccinated on the basis of their donation."
Stern, however, acknowledged the existence of a list of 200 volunteers — most of whom, if not all, are donors — who were vaccinated ahead of other volunteers. In some cases, volunteers were not vaccinated at all.
Stern also confirmed that the Jewish General has already vaccinated at least 95 per cent of its staff, including such non-clinical workers as plumbers, janitors and the in-hospital printers. That would be in apparent violation of provincial guidelines that only health-care workers and staff who provide direct physical care to patients were to be inoculated immediately.
The controversy in Montreal followed the revelation that board members of Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital were offered H1N1 flu shots. A statement from the hospital said the vaccinations were given during a clinic that was open to the general public during a time where no shortages had been announced.
Meanwhile, a Windsor, Ont., area health unit was investigating after players and staff of an Ontario Hockey Association team were inoculated against the H1N1 virus, even though some team members may not have been classified as high risk.
