Why Should They Not?

In the general prevailing atmosphere of public panic over the inadequate supplies of H1N1 vaccine, amplified by sad news of previously-healthy people succumbing to the worst-scenario effects of the virus, followed by the seriously flawed attempts on the part of regional health authorities to set up special clinics to administer inoculations against H1N1 to a target demographic of the most vulnerable, there have been many instances of displays of individual entitlement where none is present.

Individuals not included in the vulnerable groups to be given the initial products to vaccinate the public against the potential of the worst effects of this new viral strain described as a pandemic outbreak. Public health workers, first-responders, pregnant women, children under the age of 12, those with compromised immune systems due to chronic illnesses, caregivers for same, and for infants, have been discovering that they will be turned away from under-prepared clinics incapable of processing as many clients as first proposed.

So that, when members of the public who don't fit into these health-vulnerable categories show up at the clinics to be vaccinated, they are politely invited to return at a later, considerably later date, when it is anticipated that sufficient vaccine will be available, and the clinics are opened to the general public to service anyone that wishes to receive the vaccine. Understandably, exceptions made for elementary-grade and perhaps high-school children, given the unpredictability of the H1N1 onset of complications.

So, are we to condemn the hospital staff of The Ottawa Hospital who have brought along their family members at the hospital's week-end vaccination clinic? These front-line health care workers are needed, to be on duty, and not away ill, nor away from the job in the event that ultimately the health care system becomes completely overwhelmed with those needing to be hospitalized. The distraction of worrying about their families and having to take care of their own ill family members is of no benefit to anyone.

Inoculating family members of medical personnel simply makes good sense. Removing the potential for distractions of worry over the welfare of their own, and leaving them free to practise their professional art of healing with this urgent public need, whose final victim count can only be hoped will not eventuate. In all likelihood, all those struck by H1N1 whose symptoms become dangerous, will remain in a minority. But even that minority will be destined to overwhelm the capacity of any urban hospital, under current circumstances.

For the good of everyone, there is an absolute requirement to ensure that our front-line health care providers remain in good health, in good spirits, confident and capable, To do their professional best to ensure that the effects of the H1N1 influenza - whose reputation has far outrun its innocuous reality in the public mind - will be adequately and professionally dealt with.