The Canadian government’s response to the H1N1 virus has been widely criticized for its perceived lack of foresight regarding its ability to inform and inoculate an increasingly frightened public.

Although the actual logistics of providing the vaccine are largely being seen to by individual provincial health services, Steven Harper’s Conservative government has borne the brunt of attacks about their level of preparedness in managing what the World Health Organization has been calling a global pandemic of so called ‘Swine Flu’ since August 29, 2009.

On October 21, 2009, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. David Butler-Jones hosted a joint press conference in Ottawa to urge all Canadians to ward against this new, highly virulent and potentially deadly strain of influenza.

“I’m happy to say that today Health Canada has authorized the H1N1 flu virus vaccine,” said a reassuring Aglukkaq, “This is a milestone in our efforts to fight H1N1 flu virus.”
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Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq

News of the Swine-Flu started drifting into the media back in April of 2009. It very soon began to seem like it was much noise about not much. Then it returned to the airwaves and started hitting all of us hard in early October as the date for the federal roll-out of a newly developed vaccine approached. One would imagine that the Ministry of Health would follow their own directives, as listed on their “About Mission, Values, Activities” page. Pay particular attention to the third sub-heading under “Core Values – Our Values in Action,” which is entitled, “Caring for the People of Canada.” (take a minute to click the link and read that one section). There’s talk about advancing the public good, as well as the provision of credible information and reliable advice – presumably to that same public. But what has actually happened falls rather short of the Ministry’s espoused ideals.

The Federal government, as represented by Canadian Health Minister, Leona Aglukkaq, told Canadians on October 21st, “I’m happy to say that today Health Canada has authorized the H1N1 flu virus vaccine,” and on October 25th, “I encourage Canadians to get the vaccine to stop the pandemic”. I live in BC where the H1N1 virus hit hardest, the clock is still ticking, people are still dying, it’s October 30th, and my family is still unable to get the vaccine. Unfortunately, or fortunately (I won’t know until the grim reaper has completed his grisly harvest), we’re not in a high risk category, so if we die, well, that’s just taking one for the team, don’t you see.
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