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WASHINGTON: Canadians flocked to health clinics in search of the H1N1 flu vaccine, as lawmakers held an emergency meeting Monday to deal with opposition charges that the government has mishandled the growing pandemic.
The emergency session of the House of Commons follows last week's chaotic launch of the anti-H1N1 flu vaccination campaign, and coincides with what some doctors believe is a second wave of infections sweeping the country.
Health clinics from coast to coast have been swamped with people seeking immunisation from the fast-spreading flu, prompting government calls for calm and patience while more H1N1 flu vaccine stocks are delivered.
Liberal opposition lawmakers are accusing Prime Minister Stephen Harper's conservative administration of failing to supply the Canadian population with enough vaccines.
Opposition leader Michael Ignatieff said the government had failed to bring people together since the outbreak of the pandemic.
"The question now is when will the government own up and take responsibility, when will the prime minister begin to exercise the leadership that is his responsibility here?" he added.
"Why does the entire government shift responsibility to the drug companies, to the provinces, to the municipalities, anybody they can instead of standing up and doing what a government of Canada ought to be doing?"
Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said the government had not been slow in ordering vaccines, stressing that some 50.4 million doses will be supplied in the end for Canada's population of 33 million.
Everybody who wants to will be vaccinated, she said.
The H1N1 virus is blamed for the death of 95 people in Canada since April.
- AFP/yb
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