Is there something we should know?

The current flood of Americans coming across the border to willingly be given a needle makes me wonder if I should be re-thinking my own flu shot plans. As I sniffle, sneeze and gag my way through a mid fall cold, the idea of lining up for my own flu shot seems actually sensible.

Originally I had decided that I would tempt the Gods and forgo the shot, as I generally fall into the category of Canadians that for the most part are healthy and not in the risk group demographic. I wasn’t even overly concerned over the flood of the blue rinse grannies taking the flu cruise, or the bus tour operators filling up the travel buses and clogging border crossings from Maine to Washington State. The flu shot scare in the US has inadvertantly become one of the great money making opportunities that Canada has seen, we can market entire tour packages built around a visit to a clinic, a prick in the arm and a fifty buck donation to the cause. Kind of a SARS situation in reverse (Maybe we should bring Back Mick and the Boys to entertain our visitors in the line up)!

But with the near panic in the US, I’m now I’m wondering if I should go get a shot just to be on the safe side, because if the Americans are pouring over the border in record numbers to throw their fifty bucks US (and now it’s almost fifty bucks Canadian) into the health care system, then maybe I had best get mine while there is still something to get. I mean their own president offered up the suggestion that perhaps our pharmaceuticals are not safe for consumption by an anxious American public, so if all those old folks are disregarding their own leader and crossing the border, surely they must know something right?

Things are so anxious in the US at the moment that even normally big and strong, NFL football players are receiving flu shots, a less than great PR moment for a group of supposedly fit and healthy athletes. Though to be fair, only those that have asthmatic conditions and such are taking the shot, the bulk of the players are foregoing their shots to spread the already short supply around their towns.

Here in Canada, we’re constantly being reassured that our supply is appropriate for the demand, but simple math tells one that with over 300 million Americans and only 30 million Canadians somewhere down the line the supply is going to be gone. Unless Health Canada has some bizarre 10 for every one ratio of flu serum sitting on shelves, one can see how the flu pipeline would quickly run dry, most likely just when we need it most.

Personally this is one of those situations where I’d like to have the decision made for me, if the government believes that a flu shot is necessary for all then provide enough vaccine to go around and hold a comprehensive inoculation session. Give us the facts, give us our options and provide the resources should be the credo of Health Canada on this issue.

I’m still leaning towards not getting the shot, feeling that the supply should first go to the elderly and the very young, as they are the two groups that are being urged to be vaccinated. I’m willing to suffer a few days of discomfort to avoid someone truly in need not having a flu shot available.

But if I start seeing the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions and Seattle Seahawks lining up at the border for a flu shot then get out of my way, I‘m heading for the front of the line. I’ll gladly let Grandpa Ed and Granny Mabel of Terre Haute get a shot before me, but when the guys in the prime of their life and the peak of their health start to panic then I’ll now something is up. If Brett Favre and his pals think they have had a rough time on the field, wait til they get in the way of MY flu shot.