Canada's chief public health officer says he is disappointed that a shortage of swine flu vaccine will result in fewer Canadians being inoculated this week than the federal government had originally planned.
"My reaction, and I think (that of) most public health people really, is disappointment in that we won't be able to immunize next week as many people as we hoped," Dr. David Butler-Jones told CTV's Question Period on Sunday.
On Friday, Butler-Jones announced that the vaccine's maker, GlaxoSmithKline, will make only 600,000 doses of the vaccine available across the country by the end of this week, instead of the planned two million. That is in addition to the six million doses already distributed over the last three weeks.
He said he was unaware of the shortage until Thursday night.
The announcement sparked fears of a vaccine shortage. Since vaccine clinics opened last week, Canadians have lined up by the thousands, overwhelming health care workers. Many clinics have had to cut off line-ups hours before closing time in order to control the crowds.
There have been complaints that healthy people have been visiting public health clinics to receive the vaccine as soon as possible, defying requests by public officials to allow high-risk groups to be immunized first.
Helen Humphrey has four children, one of whom has already contracted swine flu.
"My children are petrified," she said. "If any one of these children get sick and die, the people who have lied to get the shot, well I hope they really remember me."
Meanwhile, inmates in some provinces have already started receiving the vaccine, angering some Canadians.
On Saturday, health officials in Alberta announced they were suspending H1N1 vaccination clinics for the general public so they could concentrate on immunizing Albertans in high-risk groups.
Opposition Liberals called for the province's health minister, Rob Liepert, to resign following the decision.
In Quebec, health officials warned those not in high-risk groups to say away from vaccination centres this week.
Officials in Ontario announced on Sunday they will double the number of flu clinics in the province. They said they will also extend the clinics' hours in an effort to cut down on long lineups.
"Those who do have vaccine, I want to see it going into people's arms this week, I don't want people sitting on vaccine," said Dr. Arlene King, the province's top public health official.
Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq blamed GlaxoSmithKline for the shortage, saying the company "over-estimated their amounts," but said she is still confident that every Canadian who wants the vaccine will eventually be able to get it.
"If you look at and compare per capita, we are well ahead in distributing the vaccine on a per capita basis than any other country," Aglukkaq told Question Period.
"I have confidence that every Canadian who wants to receive the vaccine will be able to by December."
Both Butler-Jones and Aglukkaq said the chaos surrounding the vaccine's rollout has a lot to do with the decision to distribute it to the provinces and territories as it came off the production line, rather than waiting for the full supply to be ready.
But she said the distribution of the vaccine is the responsibility of the provincial and territorial governments and refused to criticize how they are organizing their immunization campaigns.
She also refused to weigh in on a decision by Toronto Public Health to distribute some vaccine to a private health clinic, which charges its patients for health care services.
Aglukkaq did not answer a question of whether it was fair for a private clinic to inoculate paying customers while others stood in line, instead saying the decision to give the clinic vaccines was made at the local level.
In the wake of public outrage over that issue, the clinic said it would offer the vaccine to the general public.
According to Butler-Jones, there is now enough vaccine in circulation to inoculate about 60 per cent of Canadians in high-risk groups.
"It's a huge undertaking," Aglukkaq said. "This is the largest immunization campaign in the history of Canada. Thirty-three million people cannot receive the vaccine in seven days."
With a report from CTV's Roger Smith
