Health Committee on Oct. 28th, 2009

[Elaine Chatigny]

No, we do not plan to use mass emails, as you say. After testing out different ideas on a group of Canadians, we decided to prepare an information sheet that is being distributed to 10 million households across Canada. It provides the exact same kind of information. People told us they wanted something tangible that they could put on their bedside table or on the fridge. I showed you a copy last week. You have to keep in mind that not everyone is on the Internet, not everyone would have access to that kind of information on the Internet. We decided that the best tactic was to have something tangible that people could look at again and again.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you, Ms. Chatigny.

I'm sorry. Are you finished?

[Elaine Chatigny]

Are you talking about blogs, or was it sent out?

[Luc Malo, Bloc, Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC]

A mass email that goes out to everyone in your address book.

[Elaine Chatigny]

Many people are now visiting the FightFlu.ca and CombattezLaGrippe.ca sites through Facebook and Twitter. We are using social media to direct people to credible sources of information such as FightFlu.ca.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Ms. Hughes, I'm sorry, but I think you have time for only one question.

[Carol Hughes, NDP, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

That's okay. I'll talk quickly.

On October 13 an interim order was issued by the Minister of Health at the request of the Public Health Agency. An interim order is usually issued under section 30.1 of the Food and Drugs Act in rare situations where the minister believes immediate action is required to deal with a significant direct or indirect risk to human health, public safety, or the environment.

If you believe the H1N1 vaccine is safe and clinical studies back that up, why was an interim order made for the vaccine? Doesn't it imply that there are outstanding issues regarding safety and efficiency?

On surveillance, I'm wondering who is coordinating this, because there are different parts of it. What part of the operation are we at right now, and when do we anticipate it to be at the end?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

If you can answer one of those, that would be great.

[Dr. Danielle Grondin]

On the first question, Health Canada would be more appropriate to answer. I will refer that to one of my colleagues next time.

The second question was on surveillance. I think you are referring to the new pamphlet you received. Various health authorities are sentinels. The sentinels in the field are the health professionals, nurses, doctors, and people working with the public who will observe some of the secondary effects associated with immunization and report back. So it's a bottom-up process.

There are various systems. For example, IMPACT is for children. The Canadian Paediatric Society is contracted to monitor the pediatric hospitals, and so on. They are located in most of the pediatric hospitals and intensive care units. They report to their local provinces or territories and us.

[Carol Hughes, NDP, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

Who is actually coordinating it?

[Dr. Danielle Grondin]

It's all linked to PHAC. For the public health components we have a huge system--database, staff, and so on--to compile that regularly. For H1N1 we will be producing a regular report about the secondary effects, and so on.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Dr. Grondin, I want to thank you so much for coming today.

I want to remind everybody that we have the subcommittee on neurological disorders, after votes, here in this room.

The meeting is adjourned.