Should I feel guilty?

Please forget you ever read my previous blog. The one in which I relate that I received the H1N1 vaccine. I don't want to be hunted down by the media or police, paraded before all that I - a healthy woman - received the H1N1 vaccine before more deserving souls.

Yes, it's true. The witch hunts in Alberta have begun, with the Calgary Flames targeted as the first hapless souls who are being thrown into the abyss. Will they sink or will they swim? Whatever happens, they will be forever viewed as the crass monsters who jumped the H1N1 vaccination queue and were immunized, before little children and pregnant women.

Following this (gasp) shocking breaking news, fallout was swift. An Alberta Health Services employee has been fired, and rumours abound that he or she will not be the first or only sacrificial lamb.

I am shocked and appalled by the Alberta government's response and subsequent action to this whole issue. As I recall, it was just one week ago when government - via the media - announced that anyone was able to receive the H1N1 vaccination. Just go to any clinic, stand in line for, say 4 or 5 hours, and you'll get the vaccination. Turned away today? Come back tomorrow! Every citizen is welcome, regardless of age or prior health issues.

If you provide it, they will come. And so thousands of Alberta citizens lined up for hours to receive the vaccination, because gee, the government said there would be enough for everyone who wanted it.

But true to government form, a big switchero was afoot. Last Saturday night, all H1N1 vaccination clinics in Alberta were cancelled immediately, due to a possible shortage of the vaccine. "Phew," I thought. "Lucky I got my shot when I did." And that's probably what the Calgary Flames organzation thought, too. Because it was last Friday - a full day before the vaccine was withheld - when they held a 'private' immunization clinic for players and their families.

But it seems some disgruntled person decided the Flames would be made scapegoats: 'Flames jump H1N1 queue' blared the headlines. Okay, I will concede that perhaps the Flames should have had to line up with the rest of us at 'public' immunization clinics. Regardless of how they received their immunizations, the fact is they - like ALL Albertans - were eligible to receive the vaccine up to and including Saturday of last week, BEFORE the government pulled the plug on the 'everybody who wants it gets it' clinics.

The fault here lies with the government - not for providing vaccine to the Flames organization for their private clinic - but for not anticipating the overwhelming demand for the vaccine by thousands of Albertans.

So will this witch hunt continue? Am I next to be paraded to media as someone who 'jumped the queue' ahead of children and pregnant women, and those with suppressed immune systems? Doubtful they'll pick on one (or thousands) of individual citizens. But I sincerely hope the nurse who administered the shot isn't made the scapegoat.