Picton’s among local vaccine clinics cancelled due to hot spots, supply delays
Administrator | Apr 22, 2021 | Comments 13
Due to unanticipated shortages in local vaccine supply due to reallocation to hot spots and supply chain delays, Hastings Prince Edward Public Health community vaccination clinics are unable to take place:
April 26 in Belleville & Trenton, April 29 in Picton and April 30 in Belleville.
HPEPH states all individuals who had appointments at these clinics have been contacted directly by HPEPH, and have been told to reschedule their appointment. Residents were reassured they will not miss the opportunity to receive the vaccine.
“HPEPH is committed to offering clinics throughout the region until vaccine has been made available to everyone who is interested,” it said in a statement. “We encourage you to reschedule as soon as possible in order to take advantage of the earliest possible opportunity to get vaccinated, and take advantage of the earliest possible opportunity for vaccination, including at local pharmacies, if eligible.”
People who are affected must rebook their appointment. The clinics are no longer accepting walk-ins.
Filed Under: Local News
About the Author:
Trying to rebook my appointment at the Picton clinic which has apparently been cancelled, even though I was not contacted. I contacted HPEPH by Facebook Messenger who confirmed my clinic was cancelled. Using the provincial booking system, there is not a single available appointment at clinics from Kingston to Peterborough, including Cobourg, for the entire year. What a waste of time, having to input all my personal data, only to find that there are no appointments. If there aren’t any, why don’t they just close the booking system down instead of wasting our time?
18 new cases in our region today. 4 in the County.
An astonishing number of medical experts are providing advice to control this pandemic. Besides Canada Public Health (headed by Dr. Teresa Tam) and the federal vaccine committee (NACI), the list includes the Canadian Medical Association, Ontario Public Health, and local health agencies like Peel and Toronto, as well as individual doctors and self-appointed medical groups speaking, for example, on behalf of children or cancer patients. And these are just the ones I remember. The medical advice changes daily, even about the safety of one vaccine and the appropriate age cohort. Whose advice does one to follow?
Then there are appeals to target vaccination on special groups like the elderly, long-care home workers, health care workers, essential workers, racialized communities, pregnant women, people in hotspots, and, in this morning’s news, super hotspots in the GTA. How can anyone satisfy all these demands when vaccine supply is limited?
Since the Ontario government has followed the latest advice to prioritize the GTA, it’s contradictory to fault it for ignoring medical advice and yet question the diversion of vaccines from PEC. For the record, my wife and I have been vaccinated, and we scheduled an appointment for an elderly neighbor without internet. I understand the distress of those who missed out on the early clinics. But this should not cloud one’s judgment.
If vaccines were abundant, everyone would have timely access. Instead, many Canadians must wait till July for a FIRST dose of vaccine. We can’t blame Doug Ford for that.
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-reports-first-confirmed-case-of-blood-clotting-linked-to-astrazeneca-vaccine-1.5399615
The facts also confirm that Ford has not followed his own Science Advisory Table’s recommendations and many doctors have shown us that the people of Ontario have paid dearly for this irresponsible approach. The feds have had a problem with deliveries, this is what happens when we don’t manufacture our own vaccines – but this too is being resolved now for the future. To date, while there have been delays in vaccine delivery, no province has experienced running out – not even Ontario. Ford has redirected vaccines to hotspots in greater numbers than other areas because he dropped the ball in not implementing the recommendations of his own advisors – instead he placed business interests ahead of public health – resulting in many more people in the larger cities getting sick!
From the news report (CBC) today more vaccines arrive next week and will continue to do so and the original schedule to have everyone vaccinated by Canada Day is still in place. Despite this, I am still concerned that the people of PEC will have their appointment delayed, leaving us more exposed for a longer period of time. This is not what an aging population needs.
There are a lot of useless “facts” floating around. Consider the federal government’s vaccine delivery figures and Ontario’s vaccination rate. If the province had one million doses available and vaccinated people at 300,000 per day, the supply would disappear swiftly. What then—close down clinics and wait for the next uncertain shipment? Supply chain disruptions have interfered with the logistics of vaccination across the country. If Ontario had an abundance of vaccines, there would clearly be no need for reallocation.
It’s time for some logical consistency. Whenever discussion turns to the County’s inability to maintain all the roads, the problem is always linked to a past provincial government’s downloading of responsibilities. Though residents may grumble about road priorities, the municipality can only allocate inadequate resources as best it can.
The vaccine shortage is no different. The federal government is the source of the problem, and the Ontario government can only manage the supply as it becomes available. Undoubtedly, there have been missteps, but these would not have occurred if vaccines were delivered in quantity on a regular schedule.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/more-than-half-canadas-astrazeneca-vaccine-came-from-u-s-plant-accused-by-fda-of-quality-control-problems
We don’t hear any complaints from the other provinces about a vaccine shortage. In fact, we read that Ontario has had a surplus of a million vaccines that still have not been administered. Despite the delays by the manufacturers, Canada has been able to keep the vaccines rolling out. Ford complains about a shortage, and makes claims that the province could administer 300,000 shots/day – yet the highest ever achieved in Ontario has been half of that amount – 150K in a day. The problem is having a premier that has only a nodding relationship with the truth. Fortunately, the public now know this.
Lyn is quite right, the ballot box is the final solution here.
Disappointing that some folks don’t recognize the greater need in hot spots where the pandemic is truly raging. Many many more will sicken and flood our hospitals even more than now, never mind spread the sars-coV-2 mutants, if the vaccines are not administered to the highest risk areas and unvaccinated populations, e.g. front line workers, teachers, high density supply chain businesses like Maple Leaf Foods, Amazon, etc. that we all depend on.
If you say we should remember this at the ballot box, I would suggest it be at the next federal election. Canada has the worst record on vaccine procurement of any G20 country. We would not be in a position where vaccine rationing or reallocation is necessary if the supply had been even half way adequate. We can thank “Sunny Ways Trudeau for our predicament, no matter how he continues to deflect well deserved blame to Harper. Harper did much to repair the serious damage the Liberals did to the pharma industry, Trudeau’s Liberals have marched those gains back.
By all means let’s remember this issue at the ballot box whenever the NEXT election comes along. If Canada were receiving a large and steady supply of vaccines, no reallocation would be necessary.
Let’s also remember that the supply shortage will delay second doses by four months, well beyond any manufacturer’s 2-3 week recommended interval and unsupported by any scientific studies. The result could be inadequate vaccine protection that leads to false hopes for a pandemic recovery and costs more lives.
Political incompetence and electoral scheming are proving disastrous. We need to fix these problems at the ballot box.
I hope every one remembers this at the ballot box next year.
This issue of redirected vaccines is one that has bothered me for some time. I recently wrote an email to MPP Todd Smith, asking why the Ontario government placed a lower value on the lives of those who live in PEC and in the HPE area? Do our lives not matter as much as those who live in Toronto or other the hotspots? I also asked him to explain why his government approved additional vaccines to be sent to Conservative ridings that claimed to be hotspots, but in fact are not. The responses I received to my questions made as much sense as the Premier’s so call apology today – the responses were ridiculous and contained very little information and MPP Smith never did answer my question about what value does he place on the lives of his constituents. Let’s be frank, it is well known that the Ford government didn’t follow the recommendations of their Science Advisory Table – so by who/what rules are they following to redirect vaccines?
Above says HPEPH states all individuals who had appointments at these clinics have been contacted directly by HPEPH. This is not true. I have an appointment for April 29 and haven’t heard anything from them.