Former Top Health Official Says Province Overreacted To H1N1
Posted December 11, 2009 5:56 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A former top medical officer for Ontario is questioning the province’s handling of the H1N1 flu pandemic.
Dr. Richard Schabas, once the province’s chief medical officer of health, says officials overreacted to the virus.
“The tenor of those comments have become more shrill, more exaggerated, and more misleading,” he said in an interview with CityNews.
“For healthy people there is very little benefit in being immunized.”
But health officials point out more than 1,700 people have been hospitalized because of H1N1 since April and 113 have died.
“The toll on those individuals on those families and our communities has been substantial,” argued Dr. Arlene King, the current Chief Medical Officer of Health.
“This pandemic is not over and it will not be over until the World Health Organization says it is.”
The criticism comes as Toronto announced that Sunday will be the last day for people to get the H1N1 vaccine at its remaining clinics.
Although plagued with hours-long lineups and overwhelming demand when they first opened in November, many have sat virtually empty of late.
Ontario ordered 9.2 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine, but in the end, only 4.7 million – about half – have been administered.
Dr. Schabas thinks this may have something to do with the continued push for vaccination.
“They’re trying to get people immunized. Is that because they think the vaccine is still valuable or is it the political pressure to use up all the vaccine they bought? I suspect it’s a little bit of both.”
