A_Wanderer
ONE love, blood, life
linkWhen it came to the Titanic, it was women and children first. In the event of a pandemic, however, Canadian children are at the bottom of the heap.
That’s right. If the dreaded bird flu hits, kids will be the very last to receive vaccines.
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, health-care workers (including paramedics and ambulance drivers) would be the first to receive a vaccine in the event of a pandemic. That’s fine. Front-line health-care workers deserve to be inoculated first. After all, if you’re willing to put your life on the line to try to save others, you deserve all the help and protection you can get.
Next on the list are essential service providers (police, fire, army, etc.). Again, that seems more than fair. If the pandemic is as grim as some are speculating, then chaos and anarchy are sure to follow. We need personnel in place to restore and maintain order.
The next group slated to receive a vaccine can be termed “vulnerable” or “high-risk.” Pregnant women, infants and the elderly are more susceptible to illness and would therefore be given priority.
Healthy adults are fourth on the list.
And at the very bottom? Kids.
That’s right. Children aged two to 18 would be the last to receive a potentially life-saving vaccine.
So a mother would be immunized before her six-year-old son. A grandfather would be vaccinated before his three-year-old granddaughter.
Doesn’t seem fair, does it?
According to two American bioethicists, Canada has it all wrong. Ezekiel Emanuel and Alan Wertheimer argue that the elderly — not babies — should be at the bottom of the list because they’ve already enjoyed long lives. They also have the least amount of years to look forward to in the event that they survive a pandemic.
Emanuel and Wertheimer’s position, outlined in the journal Science, maintains young people (20 to 40) should be bumped up the list. Babies, while ranking higher than the eternal Dick Clark, would still be relegated below the Paris Hiltons of the world.
Ah the dillemas of supply and demand.