PM Vanhanen to Speaker of Parliament: President and ministers must not jump the queue to get swine flu vaccinations

Deaths rise to seven as 2-year-old succumbs to H1N1 in Helsinki

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On Thursday, Speaker of Parliament Sauli Niinistö (National Coalition Party) did not get any support for his proposal that the President and the government ministers should be allowed to jump ahead of the queue to get their H1N1 shots.
      Thursday’s Helsingin Sanomat quoted President Tarja Halonen as saying that she has not been vaccinated as she does not belong to any of the risk groups. The President added that she does not plan to jump the queue.
     
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) also rejected Niinistö’s proposal quite bluntly.
      ”I have myself chaired a meeting of the government, the express decision of which was that we will draw up a precise vaccination order and there will be no exceptions to the rule”, Vanhanen said in Tallinn to the Finnish News Agency (STT).
      According to Vanhanen, the Government is operational if at least five of the 20 ministers are in good health at the same time.
      Director Tapani Melkas from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health claimed that Niinistö’s proposal was unethical. The online newspaper Uusi Suomi quoted him as saying on Thursday that according to the health care ethic, all people are equal regardless of their social standing.
     
On Thursday the number of those who have died as a result of contracting the H1N1 virus rose to seven, after it was reported that a two-year-old child had passed away in the Children's Hospital in Helsinki.
      The child was in a risk group and had been vaccinated a week ago.
      As in an earlier case, it would appear that the immunity offered by the vaccine had not had time to take effect before the child became infected.
     
There are now believed to be more than 3,000 confirmed cases of swine flu in Finland as the epidemic begins to gather steam.
      The figure on Thursday had reached 2,940, but since only some of the cases are confirmed and the majority of those with the H1N1 infection suffer only mild symptoms and do not require the services of a doctor or hospital, the real number is estimated in the tens of thousands.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  WHO: Seek medical treatment after three days from first sign of swine flu symptoms (12.11.2009)
  Swine flu vaccine running low in some municipalities (10.11.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat