Manitoba remains silent on botched vax shipment

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This article was published 18/02/2022 (1483 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The Manitoba government won’t reveal whether more than one shipment of vaccines was mislabelled with incorrect storage instructions recently.

God’s Lake First Nation went public last week about a December shipment of Pfizer vaccines Ottawa ordered for the fly-in reserve, 550 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

Because the box was mislabelled, nurses kept the shots in a freezer for 20 days, which was too long to ensure they worked. As a result, 26 people received shots which were no longer effective, although not dangerous to patient health.

Indigenous Services Canada apologized for the incident, saying it is reviewing its processes.

When pressed, the federal department said the mislabelling was done by the Materials Distribution Agency, a branch of the Manitoba government.

On Thursday, the province would not say how many times this has happened or whether shots the province sent to other sites had been mislabelled.

“The province is looking into this issue,” a spokesperson wrote.

“The public can be assured the provincial vaccine program has been safe for Manitobans and has proven effective in preventing severe health outcomes from COVID-19.”

That doesn’t sit well with NDP MLA Ian Bushie.

“If it’s a mistake, own up to that error instead of trying to deflect that responsibility,” he said.

“It’s honestly hard to believe there may have been (just) one shipment or one box… that was mislabelled,” he said.

Bushie argued Manitoba has had inadequate communication throughout the vaccine rollout. Ottawa provided six paragraphs explaining the mistake it didn’t cause, while the province made the mistake and only supplied two sentences.

“They’re trying to put the blame on the feds, which is unfortunate,” he said.

Central Services Minister Reg Helwer was not made available for an interview.

Canada’s top doctor argued Thursday it’s important for governments to be transparent in situations where an error has been made.

“It is important for a clear communication of what went on,” Tam told the Free Press.

She added that Health Canada helped sort out whether those who got the outdated shots faced any health risks, and when would be best to arrange new injections.

Mistakes have happened in shipping out vaccines, but not in “any significant numbers,” she said.

“In the rollout of the biggest vaccination campaign in the history of Canada there’s always going to be some bumps in the road,” Tam said.

“The most important thing is, of course, to learn from those and rectify any specific gaps in terms of lessons learned.”

Bushie said First Nations mistrust of government health systems due to decades of substandard care.

“This doesn’t help to disprove any of that kind of thinking,” he said.

“If this issue happened in southern Manitoba, there would be an outcry, almost demanding for an inquiry.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca