The huge investments governments made in swine flu pandemic planning and vaccination might not have been justified, an Ontario health official said Thursday.

“It’s really not causing — and is not going to cause and nowhere has caused — significant levels of illness or death,” said Dr. Richard Schabas, former chief medical officer of health for Canada’s most populous province, and now medical officer of health for the Hastings and Prince Edward Health Unit.

“But governments moved ahead regardless,” Schabas said. “They ramped up their response, spent a huge amount of money on vaccines and other things. I’m not sure the $1.5 billion includes the cost of new ventilators, the cost of Tamiflu stockpiles … the huge investment that’s been put into planning for what has ultimately turned out to be, from a pandemic perspective, a dud.”

The Globe and Mail reported Thursday that Canada has so far spent $1.5 billion, twice as much as predicted, on the vaccination campaign against the H1N1 influenza A virus causing the swine flu pandemic.

Originally, it was estimated that each vaccination would cost $16. That cost has now risen to $30, partly because of an unexpected surge in demand late last month.

By the time the immunization campaign is complete, the cost could exceed $2 billion.