Saturday, October 31, 2009

H1N1

Today, my daughter and I got our H1N1 shots. What a journey! We got in line at 7:30 this morning for an 8:30 start to the clinic, and got our shots at 2:30 this afternoon. Good thing it was a mild morning (7 degrees) because we were outside until 11:30 --- and it was damn chilly after the first hour out there! We went to the high-risk clinic --- set up for people like us... Jamie pregnant and me with a chronic health condition. My UC is worth something today, let me tell you!

On the news tonight it was announced the Alberta H1N1 clinics have been suspended "until further notice". I believe our Alberta government has determined - after a week if craziness - that their setup is not working. Um... duh?!?!? Making people wait in line-ups all day, turning people away because the lines are full, sometimes before a clinic even opens for business. Seniors, preggers, little chillun's and sickos (oops - sickies) standing - unless you were smart enough to bring a chair - for hours on end.


So - time will tell, I'm curious to see how they get it together over the next few days. Perhaps now they will supply the vaccine to the doctors to administer to their patients, particularly those high risk. Perhaps now they will supply the vaccine to the school board, which has stated it would be willing to administer to the students. Perhaps now there will be monitoring of who is getting vaccined to ensure those in the high-risk categories get their shots first. Perhaps if Mr. Ed or Top Doc had to stand in a line for eight hours or perhaps get turned away due to large crowds 3 days in a row (like the woman beside us in line today) this would have been fixed before it became a week-long growing problem. However - let's see if they get it right this time. Good luck, boys...

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