Mixed message on flu gives us chills and fever
Jack Knox, Times Colonist
Published: Tuesday, November 03, 2009
It was 8:30 a.m., half an hour before yesterday's flu-shot clinic opened, but already a tuqued-and-mittened crowd of 200 snaked down the side of UVic's McKinnon Gym. The first of them, a clutch of parents with toddlers in strollers, arrived at 6:15.
It resembled the lineup outside the old Fort Street passport office, or maybe the queue to the women's washroom at a Michael Bublé concert, or, considering the high number of toddlers, one of the child-heavy crowds along the route of the Olympic torch relay.
(And by the way, the protesters who disrupted the relay Friday should be congratulated for achieving the impossible: making people side with Gordon Campbell. What's your next trick, stomping on kittens to protest homelessness? Saving old-growth forests by pinching babies? I have some brussels sprouts should you wish to huck them at nuns.)
At precisely 9 o'clock, the gym doors swung open and a pleasant woman began handing out slips of paper indicating when people could expect their shots. She also checked their eligibility: Are your children under five? Are you under 65 and do you have an underlying condition? No way of knowing who was fibbing in reply, but the honour system appeared to be working.
It was all very orderly, very Canadian -- very Victorian, Astrid Braunschmidt said -- which is to say everyone was willing to obey the rules as long as nobody else was allowed to budge.
Good thing they were patient, because by 9:05 a.m. the line had grown to 400 people. It actually shrank considerably as the tickets were dispensed; still, it was 11:30 before mum, dad and a couple of kids who arrived at 8 were able to stagger glassy-eyed back to their minivan.
Health authorities hope 800,000 British Columbians will have been vaccinated against H1N1 by the end of the week.
That's one in five of us, and should cover pretty much everyone at greatest risk, says B.C.'s provincial health officer, Dr. Perry Kendall. It better, because as of next week supply problems will slow the flow of vaccine to a trickle. Healthy people should expect to wait until the end of this month or the beginning of December before lining up. Kendall says anyone who wants a shot should be able to get one by Christmas.
Christmas? Jeez, this feels like a race, flu versus vaccine, with us as the prize at the finish line. No way to know when this pandemic will peak, Kendall says. Super.
The thing is, this is still the flu, not the Black Death. The vast majority of people who get this bug won't need treatment, let alone hospitalization.
Kendall expects H1N1 will kill fewer people than does the seasonal flu -- the great difference being that H1N1's victims are likely to be younger, their average age 30 years below that of those who die of the seasonal variety.
Which is the sort of stat that tightens the parental sphincter. Don't panic? This is our kids they're talking about. No one wants to be the one who didn't take junior to the hospital soon enough.
That helps explain Sunday's scene at Victoria General Hospital, where the line stretched right outside from the emergency department waiting room. The Vancouver Island Health Authority confirms it is seeing a surge of people reporting flu-like symptoms. ("If you are experiencing a fever and cough, please wash your hands and apply a mask before proceeding," reads the sign at the entrance to the new VGH emergency ward.)
Yet most of the flu sufferers cramming into the ER shouldn't be there, VIHA says. It advises calling 8-1-1-healthlink first (though I got a recorded message when I tried that yesterday).
It also says to go to viha.ca/h1n1 and click on the button reading Self Care Booklet: Be Prepared Be Well, which offers advice on when to seek medical care.
Meanwhile, Kendall says it takes 10 days for the vaccine to take effect, so even after getting a shot, those in high-risk categories should consider asking their doctors for Tamiflu, to be taken within 12 hours of the onset of the flu.
And don't panic, even in an orderly, Victorian fashion.
jknox@tc.canwest.com
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