Thank you.
Good morning. On behalf of the International Association of Fire Fighters and the 22,000 professional firefighters and emergency medical responders we represent across Canada, we appreciate this opportunity to share our views about vaccine priority lists with the health committee.
The full-time firefighters we represent risk their lives and safety on a daily basis to protect the lives and property of our fellow citizens. Professional firefighters protect 85% of the nation's population and infrastructure and are first on the scene in virtually any kind of emergency, whether it's a structural fire requiring rescue and suppression, a medical emergency such as a heart attack or respiratory distress, or a vehicular or industrial accident requiring an extrication.
Firefighters are also first on the scene at haz-mat and CBRNE calls, whether it's the result of an industrial accident, a highway accident, a natural disaster, or an act of terrorism.
Professional firefighters are Canada's first line of defence and part of the nation's critical infrastructure.
The IAFF, which represents 300,000 professional firefighters and paramedics in North America, has been researching pandemic issues for years. As part of our mandate to be an international leader in firefighter and public safety, the IAFF first published a guide during an influenza pandemic close to 10 years ago to educate our members on how to respond safely and effectively.
In early 2009, a couple of months before the H1N1 virus emerged, the IAFF was sitting on a pandemic advisory committee that was examining various contingencies in the event of a flu pandemic. Little did we know when we began that work that it would include a real-time example of pandemic planning and response.
When the World Health Organization declared H1N1 to be a pandemic illness in June 2009 and it became clear that a second wave was coming, the timeframe for an H1N1 vaccine suddenly became a hot topic. When would the vaccine be ready, and who would be the first group to get it?
This is where a gap in Canada's pandemic plan exists, as shown by the events leading up to the release of Canada's H1N1 vaccine.
The most vulnerable citizens and those who maintain our health care infrastructure, such as doctors, nurses, and paramedics, were rightly prioritized for the vaccine in “Guidance on H1N1 Vaccine Sequencing”, released by the Public Health Agency of Canada in September 2009. But essential services workers, who maintain the nation's emergency infrastructure, were not.
Is it okay to protect the nation's health care system and not its emergency services infrastructure? Risk analysis experts from the United States and Canada have calculated that without intervention such as priority access to vaccines and antivirals, up to 30% or 40% of firefighters could be unavailable for duty in the case of a moderate or severe influenza pandemic.
Even in this technological age, firefighting is still a labour-intensive operation. With that kind of absenteeism, there are simply not enough firefighters available to adequately perform the critical life-saving functions that citizens expect and deserve, such as fire suppression, search and rescue, protection of our national infrastructure, and, in most cities, first response to medical emergencies such as heart attacks.
As fire department capabilities decrease, so does public safety in general. I wish to emphasize this point. Priority vaccination for firefighters during an influenza pandemic is not a matter of firefighter safety—it's a matter of public safety. It becomes even more important to vaccinate firefighters to ensure public safety when you realize that the role firefighters play as emergency medical responders puts them at an increased risk of exposure to the influenza virus.