Evidence of meeting #37 for Health in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was h1n1.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Keith Martin Liberal Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC
It was on herd immunity and trying to hit that 70% target.
4:50 p.m.
Doctor, As an Individual
Essentially, herd immunity is this: you don't have to vaccinate everybody in a population to create an effective immunity within that entire population. You need to inoculate or have immunity in a certain percentage. That certain percentage depends on a lot of different factors, including the attack rate and such. Generally, the higher you get in terms of the population.... It could be entirely correct that if we get up to 50% or 60% of the population inoculated, that's enough, but right now we're not even close in terms of what people are saying they're going to accept.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Keith Martin Liberal Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC
It seems to me that would be a very good selling point, that our individual action to receive the vaccine is also an act of public service to our neighbour, and in effect, by receiving the vaccine we're helping to protect and retard the spread of this virus to our fellow citizens.
4:50 p.m.
Doctor, As an Individual
Absolutely. I think that's absolutely true.
I'll tell you something, just as an aside. A lot of people are thinking, well, you know, I'm not likely to be hit, but I can tell you I think the saddest thing you'll ever see is a parent—because a lot of the people who are hit on this are young people—a mother, who's wondering why she didn't vaccinate her young child who has gone through an incredible illness. I can't emphasize enough how important vaccination is.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Tim Uppal Conservative Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for coming.
We've been doing this study for a while, and it's good that we've been doing this. I actually went over to one of my larger communities, Fort Saskatchewan, and sat down with our deputy fire chief and our senior health and safety adviser for the city just to talk about what they're seeing on the ground, what they're seeing at their level. Frankly, I was very reassured. They've got a plan in place and it has been in place for a while. Some of the plan, according to the deputy fire chief, is part of what they use as their disaster plan for other issues. In our riding, in our communities, we've got oil upgraders and other chemical plants, so they've got a disaster plan in place and they've been able to work with that plan that's already there and modify it for a possible H1N1 outbreak.
The business continuity plan is there. They've figured out within their bureaucracy and their positions what priority positions they need to work on. They've figured out how they can move staff possibly from one department to another department and also what they can do from home. It's very reassuring that they've already figured all this out.
When I asked them about what they would like to see, they said they're getting a lot of good information. Their concern is that it's too much information, and they're having trouble keeping up with all the information that's coming through. We've heard this from one of the doctors here and witnesses before that it's difficult for some of these people, who are very busy with their own jobs and other priorities they have throughout the day, to also be doing a lot of this reading. Their idea was to try to keep it simple.
Can I get some idea from you whether you're hearing the same thing?
4:55 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Public Health Association
I can speak to that from CPHA's perspective. Again, it's a legitimate concern. We ourselves have noted that, and we're working with the Public Health Agency now, as well as the Canadian Medical Association, the College of Family Physicians, and the National Specialty Society for Community Medicine, to ensure there are shorter versions, let's say, of the best evidence we have—guidelines for primary physicians on the front lines. It has been recognized as a concern. I believe the Public Health Agency is responding to that concern by trying to provide more user-friendly tools, and many of our agencies are working with them to make that happen and to work it through our respective networks.
4:55 p.m.
Doctor, As an Individual
I don't know how you simplify the messaging. I think you're right, there is an overwhelming amount of information out there. A lot of it is bad information, to be perfectly honest with you. I think the anti-vaccine forces have really jumped on this opportunity.
I don't know how you'd do that, except that I think you stay on message. You get all your involved parties giving the same message, maybe do some television spots. We did that with smoking, so why not with vaccinations? Beyond that, I don't know.
I will say, by the way, on the issue of preparation, that I think preparation is actually very good, by and large, on a local level. My concerns about preparation probably have more to do with inter-site cooperation. That is to say, public health is actually in pretty good shape with that, but as you may not know, ICUs have been kind of historically outside the domain of public health. Public health goes about as far as the hospital—maybe into bed utilization—but the ICU is a black box, so as for how we could cooperate if we were really pressed to do that, I think that's an unknown. It's one of the big deficits, in my mind: the cooperation of ICUs across the country, if it became necessary.
4:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Healthcare Association
I have just a quick comment.
Again, I lived in Toronto during SARS and was the chair of a hospital at that time as well. The business continuity was not a big issue at that point in time, but the document that came out that everyone wanted, that was considered the definitive business continuity plan, came from Sherry Cooper, who's an economist with TD Bank or CIBC.... Sorry, I'm getting a little message here. Anyway, I'm not supposed to say—
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
Yes, a little message is right.
I thank you very much. Could you just take a minute to quickly wrap up? We are going to go into business after that. There will be no more questioning since we're going into business.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
No, Ms. Wasylycia-Leis, we're going into business. I'm sorry about that.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
I want to tell you that we have appreciated your coming out today, and we have appreciated all the comments you have made. It has been very, very insightful.
I will suspend the meeting. We do have some very important business things to discuss, and I know Ms. Wasylycia-Leis has something to ask you, so what I am going to do is give three minutes. Ms. Wasylycia-Leis, will this help you? We're taking a three-minute suspension so the cameras can be removed. We will then do business until 5:30 p.m. before we have another meeting on neurological disorders.
I'm going to suspend for three minutes and ask that the committee resume in three minutes. Would everybody who is not on the committee please leave the room, because we are going into camera?
Thank you.
[Proceedings continue in camera]
