The second wave of the H1N1 flu was washing across the country before the vaccine arrived this fall. Government told us that only designated high-risk groups would receive the first shots, the rest of the population would have to wait their turn. I didn’t dwell much on this preferential treatment until a friend, who is a medical doctor, surprised me one day with his comment about this government directive. He told me that the process was “unfair” and that everybody should have had equal access to the vaccine when it was first released.
Yesterday I did what I often do during a long drive — let my mind wander over subjects that seriously bother me. Driving is boring and somewhat depressing, so I wasn’t long in reaching one of my more galling issues: how our provincial leaders have pushed the Ontario economy from have to have-not status. Thinking for me can be quite visual so the images invoked were of a sinking ship. A full Titanic scenario. The massive ice berg of a changing world economy, the breached hull of tight money and more taxes, the great ship floundering under the weight of businesses too big to fail. All right, so my visions can be a shade melodramatic, but the sinking of the Titanic on its maiden voyage exemplified the nautical arrogance of the builders who, just like our politicians, were certain their design could handle any emergency.
On that icy night in 1912, the bravery of many of the passengers and crew to save the women and children first was an amazing act of personal courage. The ship’s owners had placed those courageous souls in an impossibly “unfair” position by not providing enough lifeboats. And that was when my thoughts segued to the “unfair” reference made earlier by my medical friend. What he was referring to by “unfair” was not just the preference given to one group over another, but the ineptitude of the politicians who had made queuing necessary. If government’s emergency planning had been successful, there would have been enough lifeboats and everyone would have had equal access to inoculation.
Our governments have a monopoly on our healthcare system so they are accountable. Only lately have some family doctors even been provided with the vaccine for their patients in Toronto. Now inoculation clinics are reducing their hours and starting to close. Many people have still not been vaccinated against this pandemic which for some is proving to be a life or death issue. And here’s the frightening truth — I have been told that a third wave of the H1N1 flu is coming in the New Year. If for just one minute queuing is re-instated, the government be damned.
