Gated Flu Vaccine Clinic Community Members Speak...."I, Cake-Eater!"

Public?
WeDon'tNeedNoStinkingPublicVille


Because I'm in the science-geek business I sometimes get invited to some reasonably high-powered fund-raisers to add a little local colour to the proceedings.

Not long ago I found myself sitting at a table with a corporate magnate and a hospital administrator from south of the border.

And they got to talking about health insurance and how they take 'care' of their people.

Turns out, according to them at least, that much of the volume in the private health clinic business in Canada comes not from rich individuals, but rather from corporations that buy memberships in large blocks for their flocks.

The magnate at the table put it very bluntly - he uses them as a recruiting tool to make the people he hires feel 'special' and to convince them, especially if they are coming from the States, that they will not have to worry about mixing with the hoi-polloi.

So....

Imagine my surprise, when the following story from Anna Mehler Paperny popped-up on The Globe's website last night. Here's her lede:

Kim Goodman got the relief of knowing her two young children are as protected against the H1N1 flu as they're going to get.

And she didn't have to line up, jostle frantic snifflers or risk being turned away after a six-hour wait.

In fact, seven-year-old Alex and five-year-old Jake got their left arms pumped full of adjuvanted vaccine several minutes before their scheduled appointment at Medcan yesterday afternoon.

Their golden ticket? Their dad's corporate membership.

And in the lobby of the clinic's downtown office building less than half an hour after the family of four arrived, her inoculated children equipped with lollipops and twirling in circles, Ms. Goodman said she wouldn't have it any other way.

"There's no way I would take them to a clinic. I don't want them to pick up 50 other things."

Ms. Goodman isn't impressed with the public rollout so far: Co-ordination has been "pretty pathetic," she said....

I'm sorry, but I have to ask the following question.....

Does Ms. Goodman even know who bought and paid for the production and distribution of her flu vaccine?

*****

The best response on this matter I've seen so far is the following 'Letter to the Editor' of the Globe from a doctor named Cheryl Wegner who apparently wishes to care for ALL of her patients now matter where they come, regardless whether or not they like to eat cake (or the cake of others):

"Thank you for the information on Medcan's offer to make some of its vaccine available to the public. As a group of four physicians with more than 1,000 high-risk patients in downtown Toronto and no vaccine, we've told our patients to go to Medcan for their H1N1 vaccine. I'm sure other downtown physicians will too."

Good that, not to mention Canadian, eh?

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