H1N1 shot for dairy workers justified: officials
p But as of Tuesday, three new groups were eligible for the H1N1 vaccine:
As of Tuesday, Nova Scotia had received 207,400 doses of H1N1 vaccine and about 15 per cent of the population has been inoculated. Dr. Once the vaccine was restricted to only priority high-risk groups, the company offered to give the vaccine back but was turned down, said Derek Estabrook, vice-president of marketing for Farmers Dairy. Vaccination clinics in the province !–more– are closed for Remembrance Day, though flu assessment centres are still open. Ultimately, all Nova Scotians are at some risk, so while it’s not following our current rules, they were given the vaccine under a different set of rules and we just need to keep using it, Strang said. It’s far better they just keep using it than just have it sit in the fridge unused. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia chief public health officer
The company requested the doses weeks before the current restrictions were put in place, when the Department of Health allowed big employers to look after the vaccination of their own staff. Robert Strang, the province’s chief public health officer, said it’s a matter of quality control, and the dairy company did the right thing by using the doses. A major dairy company serving Atlantic Canada did nothing wrong in immunizing employees against swine flu even though they weren’t a priority group, Nova Scotia public health officials say. Estabrook said the company was told there was no guarantee the doses had been kept at the proper temperature. —Dr. Nova Scotia narrowed the list of people who can get the shot to only priority groups because of a Canada-wide vaccine shortfall. About 100 Farmers Dairy employees in Hammonds Plains and Truro received the H1N1 shot on Monday, including those outside the announced high-risk categories. Strang said it could take until February before all Nova Scotians have access to the vaccine. Health said that they could not take it back and that we should use our best judgment and administer it from there, he said.
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