Barnes calling for more accountability regarding COVID vaccine rollout

A local MLA is calling for more accountability about rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine.

Drew Barnes, MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat, says Albertans deserve to know how many of the 975 doses supplied to Medicine Hat on Dec. 22 have been administered so far, adding this can be made public without violating any privacy issues.

Barnes says this is about the health of Albertans and the more transparency the better.

“We are not providing zone or municipality breakdowns of immunizations at this time,” said Tom

McMillan assistant director communications Alberta Health. “We recognize the public interest in this information and are looking to expand our reporting in the coming weeks.”

So far Alberta has received 42,250 doses of the vaccine and across the province, a total of 26,269 doses had been given by Jan. 4. There was one adverse event following immunization that was reported.

Although Alberta did not reach the goal of administering 29,000 doses by Dec. 31, McMillan says Alberta is 61 per cent above the national average in the roll out.

Barnes says he is “concerned” about how slowly it is being administered. He believes health care workers who would like the vaccine should have “immediate” access.

“I would ask Alberta

Health Services to implement that in a very prompt manner,” said Barnes.

Vials of the vaccine that have been thawed, in preparation to administer, cannot be refrozen and must be used in full or it is wasted.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw and Health Minister Tyler

Shandro issued a statement Tuesday that only 0.3 per cent has been lost due to waste.

In the last two and-a-half weeks Israel has vaccinated 1.5 million people. Israel addressed possible wastage by allowing those who do not fit the immediate criteria to receive the vaccine, to wait outside facilities where the vaccine is being given in case there is vaccine left over.

Hinshaw says appointments for staff are overbooked to avoid wastage and those administering the vaccine are able to vaccinate each other rather than waste any vaccine.

McMillan did not answer questions about the urgency to vaccinate health care workers, particularly after the death this week of a healthcare worker in Calgary. There was also no answer about how many health care workers have been vaccinated so far.

There is the question of whether Alberta’s relatively slow pace at rolling out the vaccine will affect the supply of additional vaccines from the federal government.

“We are working with the federal government and our provincial and territorial partners to continue acquiring larger and more regular doses of vaccine in the days ahead,” said McMillan.