H1N1 Vaccine Given to Taliban Detainees Before Some Canadians

by Amy Judd | November 10, 2009 at 06:01 pm

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Reports today from The Canadian Press state that the H1N1 vaccine will be given to Taliban detainees in Afghanistan before most Canadians at home will have access to the vaccine. Canadian Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq has called the report outrageous and said she will be looking in to it.

The Taliban detainees currently being held by Canadian troops will start receiving the vaccine tomorrow because according to the Geneva Convention, prisoners and captors must be treated the same when it comes to medical care.

“I’ve always said that Canadians are the priority,” Aglukkaq told reporters today in Ottawa. “I’m disturbed by it and I can say that we did not make this decision and I will look into the matter.”

Vaccinations will be provided on a case by case basis however and there is no plan to vaccinate all the prisoners at once at this time.

In Canada, those who are considered high risk are the only ones able to get the vaccine, and while other groups are expected to all have access to it by the end of the year, many clinics in Canada keep running out of the vaccine.

135 people have died in Canada from the swine flu since the outbreak earlier this year.

According to Michael Byers, a professor of Law at UBC, honoring the Geneva Convention is exactly what the Canadian forces should be doing.

“It’s full equality of treatment for both sides with respect to provision of medical services, and that’s exactly what is happening with the vaccine and what should happen,” Byers said, adding the decision to provide equal treatment to detainees simplifies the soldiers’ work because it avoids “philosophical questions.”