Mayor Guthrie and members of council:
I am writing to express my deep dismay at the incomprehensible lack of urgency demonstrated by Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health last week in administering the first shipment of vaccines received.
Crunching numbers available in local media reports, it appears that by the end of the week, Public Health had injected 505 doses of the 975 vaccines they received on Tuesday. Friday afternoon they closed their doors and went home for the weekend with 470 doses still sitting in their freezers.
WDGPH needs to be held accountable for this abysmal lack of preparation, organization and response at the Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday afternoon.
The Pfizer vaccine arrived in Guelph first thing on Tuesday morning. Why did Public Health not launch a 24/7 vaccination drive Tuesday afternoon?
According to the US FDA fact sheet, it only takes two to three hours to thaw the vaccine.
A carton of 25 vials or 195 vials may take up to two or three hours, respectively, to thaw in the refrigerator, whereas a fewer number of vials will thaw in less time.
On Wednesday, WDGPH resources and energies were used to stage a media photo-op for the administration of five vaccines.
FIve hundred doses were apparently administered between Wednesday and Friday, which would have left a total of 470 sitting in freezers over the weekend.
If WDGPH had launched a 24-hour vaccination drive on Tuesday after the vaccines arrived, it's possible that all the doses received could have been administered by midnight on Wednesday.
Cell phone contact information to reach front-line health care workers at short notice has already been collected by Public Health – several times over. I understand from councillor Hofland that EMS workers volunteered to help administer vaccinations.
The five-day delay is inexcusable. Instead of using up all the vaccines by the end of the day Wednesday, the final 470 vaccines are likely not being administered until today, Monday.
There are many elements of the vaccination effort which are out of local control. Putting the vaccine in people's arms is not one of them.
Front line health care professionals are calling for 24/7 vaccination drives when shipments of vaccines are delivered and are offering their services to help inject it. I have no doubt that doctors, nurses, pharmacists and EMS workers in Guelph will step up to do the same.
Health care workers expressed outrage two weeks ago when vaccination was suspended over Christmas in other cities. The head of the vaccine task force, General Rick Hillier acknowledged that this pause was a mistake.
How can it be that this same serious lack of judgment has now been replicated here in Guelph?
Pausing inoculations over the weekend was the wrong decision. It cannot be repeated. Firefighters do not lay down their hoses in front of burning buildings on Friday afternoons because there are "more than sufficient" resources to spray the water on Monday.
The house is on fire. Lives are on the line. If WDGPH cannot muster the required response, local administration of the vaccine needs to be handed over to other health care leaders who are willing to marshal the 24/7 resources we need.
Susan Watson, Guelph
