What if public health opened COVID-19 vaccination clinics and no one came?
That’s not likely to happen, health officials said this week.
Why? Because H1N1.
The H1N1 virus — often referred to as swine flu — swept across the world from 2009-2010. Total deaths are estimated to be have been about 284,000, but later analyses found the toll was no greater than the typical seasonal flu.
When a vaccine was finally developed, residents scrambled to get in line.
“I remember with H1N1, if you go back that far, we actually did over 70 per cent for the first time ever,” Health Minister John Haggie told reporters Wednesday. “That’s the bottom end of what we’d need for uptake for a vaccine, if one can be developed for COVID-19.”
Premier Dwight Ball, who was a pharmacist and aspiring politician at the time, said he remembers it well.
“We were the second highest jurisdiction in the country, second only to New Brunswick,” he said. “So I believe … that Newfoundlanders will be quite receptive to receiving a vaccine based on the impact that COVID-19 has had on their lives.”
Chief Medical Officer Dr. Janice Fitzgerald echoed her fellow panelists.
“Certainly our experience with H1N1 tells us that people are more than willing to consider vaccinations in these types of situations,” she said.
Fitzgerald also added a plug for regular flu vaccinations, for which the province rates poorly each year in terms of uptake.
“I will use this opportunity to say there will still be an influenza season this year, so we would very much recommend that people step up to get vaccinated against flu this year,” she said. “We want to hit that 80 per cent mark for influenza as well.”
The remarks were spurred by questions about a vaccination poll released this week.
Narrative Research found that 74 per cent of Canadians who responded to the survey will either definitely or probably get a vaccine for COVID-19 once it’s available.
The interest was higher in Newfoundland, were respondents in the same category tallied 81 per cent.
Narrative polled 1,230 Canadians for the poll between June 9-11.
A margin of error was not given.
