The Alberta government has halted all H1N1 flu shot clinics across the province in the wake of a shortage of the vaccine and growing demand from citizens to access it.

When flu shot clinics resume this week, they will only be open to high-risk groups–and all others will be turned away, said Dr. Gerry Predy, senior medical officer of health with Alberta Health Services.The clinic closures come one day after Alberta Health Minister Ron Liepert said his government is not going into “Soviet Union mode” where people in lineups will have to prove they’re in the high-risk category.Opposition members said Saturday the government’s about-face is medically negligent, suggesting Premier Ed Stelmach and Liepert should be held legally responsible for their actions.

But Liepert defended the province’s immunization plan and said it’s worked to inoculate 10 per cent of the population.”Probably over 300,000 people in Alberta have been vaccinated, so I don’t know how anyone can say it wasn’t a success,” said Liepert, adding Alberta’s aboriginal population and most health-care workers have got their shots.”But it was also incredibly oversubscribed and it was oversubscribed relative to the vaccine that’s available. No one can be blamed for vaccine not being available,” said Liepert.Alberta Health Services announced the closure of flu shot clinics late Saturday in the wake of massive lines, where people were being turned away in Calgary even before the clinics opened.

The decision to suspend all clinics in the province was made at the direction of Alberta Health in light of a temporary national shortage of the vaccine, said Predy.

“This reduction in vaccine supply is beyond the control of Alberta Health Services,” he said. “We must now only allow the high-risk groups to be vaccinated.”

Alberta Health Services isn’t expected to announce plans for resuming the vaccine campaign until Monday.When the flu shots are made available again, it will only be given to pregnant women, children six months to less than five years of age, people under 65 years of age with chronic health conditions, health-care workers and those living in isolated communities.”We will be very strict. We will be turning people away that don’t meet the criteria,” said Predy.But he said the restrictions will only be temporary.”There will be more vaccine coming.”The flu flip-flop set off a political firestorm.”The minister and the premier have had ample time to prepare for this,” said Alberta Liberal Leader David Swann. “The pandemic plan is clear, it says high-risk individuals first. They failed to follow that.”They ignored the best advice, as they often do in this government.”Swann suggested the province “botched” the vaccine rollout and should be held accountable both politically and legally for their negligence.Swann also wanted to know why the clinics were being closed today when the province still has some vaccine, which could continue to be given to high-risk patients.But the health minister said time is needed to assess the flu shot clinics to find the best approach to administer what vaccine remains.
“We had increasing situations( Saturday)where lineups were longer than they ever were,” said Liepert. “It was the recommendation of the chief medical officer of health that we suspend the clinics and take a couple of days to design a plan that will clearly address the high-risk Albertans.”If we hadn’t, our vaccine supply would have been exhausted in a few days.”

For the second day in a row, Saturday’s clinics saw huge lineups by the time they opened at 8:30 a.m.Hundreds of people were in the queue at Brentwood Village mall by 4:30 a.m., some with lawn chairs and some huddled around the flames of a propane camp stove.Phil Lafrance staked out his place at the front of Saturday’s line at 9 p.m. Friday.”This is for my son, my pregnant wife, mostly–for their health and mine, too,” Lafrance said.By mid-afternoon, the mood in the lines grew tense.Richard Twaddle described a “revolt” at the Brentwood clinic when about 30 individuals who had been guaranteed their shots earlier in the day were told to go home.
“There were six or eight people challenging the female security guard . . . begging to change her mind.”Twaddle and his comrades were able to persuade officials to get their vaccination.Trevor Wekel, in line at the Avenida clinic, said he saw a 75-year-old man with a walker collapse from exhaustion.”I’m glad they’ve realized it’s a real mess.”

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