The public, and health-care workers in particular, should act responsibly by being vaccinated against H1N1 as soon as the vaccine is available in Canada. Those who wish to make excuses for not being vaccinated can easily find them – the disease often may not be deadly; the Prime Minister seemed to waffle; if Health Canada isn’t in a rush, then maybe it’s not that important – but ultimately being vaccinated is the most effective way to save lives. It is the right thing to do.
The biggest immunization campaign in Canadian history is on its way, but the confusion that attends H1N1 and the vaccine may hamper the campaign’s success. On two main points, there should be no confusion: The disease is deadly, even if only in a small minority of people; and the vaccine, whether with an adjuvant (chemical booster) or without it, is safe. (Pregnant women may prefer to wait an extra two weeks for the unadjuvanted version, as no clinical data on safety in this group are available, Health Canada says.)
Health workers are deemed a priority group for the vaccine, both to protect them from being infected by sick patients and to protect flu-less patients from them. But health workers in jurisdictions such as Toronto have a terrible record on the seasonal flu shots. Just 42 per cent of those working in acute-care hospitals in the city were vaccinated in the past three years, well below the provincial target of 70 per cent. Whether that reflects skepticism, laziness or something else, it’s inexcusable, and surely makes the general public doubt their health-care workers, the vaccine or both.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper may have inadvertently contributed to doubts about the necessity or safety of being vaccinated when, asked whether he would be vaccinated, he replied that he would wait for the vaccine to be recommended. He should have said, “Yes, I will be vaccinated.”
Canadians who lack immunity to H1N1 should give the same answer.

An editorial from the Globe and Mail, published Oct. 16