Firefighters and police have been bumped off the priority list to get the H1N1 vaccine, and Neville Wheaton believes that’s a problem.

The Corner Brook fire chief has been in contact with Western Health and the Fire Commissioner’s office to see why the priority for first responders was dropped.

He said he knows there are a lot of factors at play in the vaccination program and it’s a dynamic situation, but he’s not sure why the first responders have suddenly been placed in the same priority as the general population.

“If I’m running a business, I have 50 or 60 people in it and 40 per cent of my staff are down, the work doesn’t get done,” Wheaton said. “If my staff here is down 40 per cent, then we can’t respond.”

He says it’s nobody’s fault in particular there are issues with the vaccination campaign he is sure he doesn’t know about.

He’s talked to St. John’s firefighters that have been vaccinated and have said they received priority.

St. John’s Deputy Fire Chief Jack Hickey told Transcontinental Media his firefighters were able to get the vaccine as “first responders” on medical calls during the period health-care workers were vaccinated.

However, they weren’t supposed to get the vaccine, Health Minister Jerome Kennedy said Tuesday.

At a media briefing, Kennedy said first responders such as firefighters, ambulance attendants and police were not included in the designated health-care category vaccinated last week.

The St. John’s department has been at least partly covered and the Conception Bay South Fire Department is getting vaccinated early, but not Corner Brook. It’s hard for him to reconcile the different stories.

Wheaton said a regular shift has 10 firefighters on duty, but he can operate with a minimum response strength of eight. Less than that in unmanageable.

He’s asked for ideas about what to do if he too many firefighter are off sick.  He has a small pool of relief workers, but that may not be enough. Overtime is an option, but he doesn’t want to burn his crews out.

“If I’m down to 40 per cent or below 40 per cent, how do I respond?” he asked. “What happens if I can’t respond?

“I don’t know. I’m as confused as the general public is on the changes and stuff.”

Sgt. Mark Hancock, district commander for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, is working as best he can to protect his members from the swine flu. He said most members have protective masks. They use gloves and promote handwashing, but the vaccine is one tool he will have to do without until RCMP officers get vaccinated along with the general public.

“The province is looking at vaccinating high-risk people and children first,” Hancock said. “We’ve got some of our people done, but not all of them. We’re basically waiting for updates.

“What I’ve got from our Criminal Operations is members will line up with the general population when it gets to that stage even though we’re first responders.”

Dr. Greg Mercer, western medical officer of health, said the earlier plans were devised for H5N1 avian flu which kills nearly half the people who get it.
First responders are in the mass-immunization queue and will be treated like any other citizen.

“When we get to the point where we’re able to do mass immunization, we might try to accommodate them as a group at a point and time,” Mercer said. “We haven’t even discussed that because we don’t know what our vaccine supply will be at this point.”