Left out and let down

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This article was published 28/04/2021 (1294 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Organ recipients, parents of children with chronic diseases, and people who work with cancer patients cannot fathom why Manitoba hasn’t designated people under 40 with high-risk conditions a priority for vaccination.

Alexa, 30, received a double lung transplant a few years ago because of her cystic fibrosis. She said she doesn’t know when she’ll be able to get vaccinated.

“It is nerve-racking, for sure,” said Alexa, who asked that her last name not be used. “It is terrifying.

“I rely on people around me to keep themselves healthy. I don’t even pick up my prescriptions. The most I do to get outside is walk the dog.

“I know what it’s like to not be able to breathe. I do not want to get COVID.”

Alexa said the pandemic has forced her back into the same type of life she had when she was on the transplant waiting list.

“No one can come in if they are sick,” she said.

“I agree older Manitobans needed to be vaccinated first; they were hit the hardest. I understand the age approach. Younger people are healthy, but in the immunocompromised population, a lot of us are younger.”

Phil Snarr is fighting to protect his five-year-old son, Jack, who has cystic fibrosis. He said he has worked at home for months and his wife has had to turn down work as a substitute teacher.

Snarr said children like his son — and their parents — should be made a priority for vaccination.

“There is a large pediatric cystic fibrosis population,” he said. “We know when they get even a cold or flu, they can be in hospital on oxygen. We have pretty much stayed home.

“We are not trying to jump the queue. We’re trying to explain the benefit of why someone with (cystic fibrosis) should get it.”

Debbie Blair has multiple sclerosis while her 15-year-old son, Noah Gross, received a kidney when he was only two. It means Blair is on the province’s second priority list for people with high-risk conditions, while he is on the first priority list.

“We are on high alert every time you walk out the door,” said Blair. “I would stop everything if I was told I could get it at the super site.

“If they are concerned about the high-risk adults, it should be all of them and not just the ones 50 and over. We are in full lockdown other than going shopping. But this is our world… we’ve had hand sanitizer since his transplant.”

Despite that, Blair isn’t advocating for others to wait in line so she can get a shot.

“Yes, I’m more at risk, but I don’t want to go ahead. But because we are at higher risk, we just don’t go out.”

Angeline Webb, of the regional office of the Canadian Cancer Society, said she can’t understand Manitoba’s decision not to vaccinate people battling cancer and instead focus on age groups.

Webb said, if that continues to be the case, then they hope Manitoba considers allowing exceptions so doctors can make the decision to vaccinate patients they know need to be immunized.

“I can’t figure it out. They seem to have abandoned the priority list,” she said.

“This is not a huge population. Only 10 per cent of people with cancer are under the age of 40. Every other jurisdiction is doing it that way except Nova Scotia. In Alberta, they have priority and they are sticking to it.

“If they lived in Alberta, they would have had the vaccination ages ago.”

But Dr. Joss Reimer, medical lead of the province’s vaccine task force, said it is looking at “everybody in Manitoba all the time and trying to make the best possible decisions” with limited resources.

“These are impossible decisions. We are constantly having to choose from one group or another because we don’t have enough doses. This weighs very heavily on the team.”

Reimer said the same people who make vaccination priority decisions have family members and friends with health conditions, or they themselves have them.

“So we are still working on doing that… and trying to pick the best possible way to reach people we are seeing in Manitoba who are at highest risk.”

Reimer noted that AstraZeneca was being used to vaccinate the high-risk medical and disability population until the risk of blood clots “ruined those plans at least temporarily.”

She said because of new guidance from the federal government, the task force is looking at reducing the age limit for the vaccine to 30.

But Reimer said, at least for people who have compromised immune systems, “the increased risk associated with COVID is not much higher than the general population, and certainly not as high as it is for folks like chronic kidney disease.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca