Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:03:2
AHN Staff
Ottawa, Ontario (AHN) - Estimates by the federal, provincial and territorial governments of Canada placed the country's Influenza A (H1N1) immunization bill at $1.5 billion. The amount is larger than the $806 million estimate in September based on a $16 unit price for 50.4 million doses of the vaccine.
The cost of manufacturing the swine flu vaccine has gone up to $30 and may continue to climb up to a total of $2 billion.
Medical experts are debating if it is worth it to spend that much on protecting Canadians against the H1N1 virus. Among the parameters for the high cost of inoculation to be considered worth it is if the vaccine provided protection to many Canadians and helped maintain work productivity, and would be instrumental in stopping a potential third wave of swine flu from hitting the country.
Because the ongoing mass vaccination is the largest immunization effort in Canada's history, Ottawa was caught by surprise with the large turnout of residents seeking vaccination that it has spawned controversy over reports of queue jumping by influential groups like hockey players, executives of hospitals and private schools students.
The latest to have been discovered to be part of the long line jumpers group are top police officials in Toronto who got the H1N1 shots on Oct. 30. The Toronto Police Services defended the inclusion of their officials even if they were not on the priority list because key decision makers needed swine flu protection.
However, the Toronto Public Health stopped the immunization of police officers when officials learned there was a vaccine shortage.
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