Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask a few more questions about H1N1. I guess, as a parent now, I’ve got two small children and I worry. I mean, I worry for a living. I’m worried about them every day, every minute of every day. I’d like to ask the Minister what clinical experience exists currently with the Arepanrix H1N1 vaccine. What clinical experience is there out there as it pertains to children? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that all parents do worry, and that it is important that residents out there, especially with young children, get the information.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to inform the Member that since this vaccine was manufactured, clinical studies were done on young children in a number of settings including international clinical trials, and the results have shown, and it has satisfied all of the experts in the Public Health Agency of Canada, that the results are safe.
The second thing is, prior to this vaccine being made, there were some who knew about impending or possible H1N1 breakout, and all of the testing that was done with respect to the production of it, the ingredients, the quality of the ingredients, the manufacturing process, those clinical trials were done on humans as well as animals.
I’m not a scientist. I’m not medically trained. I think it would be inappropriate for us to talk in medical language, but I think it’s very appropriate for us to have questions answered about what are the experts saying. Mr. Speaker, I can assure the Member and the residents out there that this has gone through and passed the rigorous Canadian vaccination testing process that is required.
Mr. Speaker, I asked specifically about the Arepanrix H1N1 vaccine. Again, this is very confusing for people, confusing for me, confusing for the general public, because if you go to the product information leaflet on Arepanrix H1N1 right off of the Health Canada website, it says right here in healthy adults, aged 18 to 60 years and no -- I repeat no -- clinical experience yet in elderly, in children or in adolescents. What they did is use a different testing model on children and adolescents and the elderly. They didn’t use this. This vaccine has not, to my knowledge off the Health Canada website, been clinically tested in those areas. I’d like to ask the Minister: we’re administering a vaccine that has no clinical experience, Mr. Speaker, is that true? Thank you.
That is not true. In fact, even on Cross-Country Canada Checkup where there was an expert being interviewed for two hours, he made it clear that this is an evolving process. He said even 24 hours ago he could not say the relationship between flu vaccine and this new vaccine, the interaction, in a way that he could now. Things are changing. But I can assure the Member -- and I don’t know exactly what he’s looking at in the Public Health Agency of Canada -- information is changing and the latest information, I can assure the Member because I was there when Dr. Butler-Jones and Dr. Kami Kandola were reviewing the facts as they were coming about, and the clinical trials have been done on children, and they have found that they don’t need two shots for children, which they thought was originally required. They have found that one shot is enough. From my understanding, from a layperson’s point of view, less of this vaccine has proven to be effective and it has even proven to be that even for younger children it’s safe for them to use.
So, Mr. Speaker, I think it’s really important for the residents to know that all vaccines in Canada go through a rigorous testing process. This has been done. This has been done on people and children and it has been found to be safe. There is always a risk and benefit analysis being done. There’s always risk in any medication that you take, but as much as the Public Health Agency of Canada can tell us, they have done the testing. I think Members should know that information does change and the Public Health Agency is trying to get as updated information as possible. Thank you.
Thank you. Again, right off the product information leaflet, under elderly, it says no clinical data are available for Arepanrix H1N1 in this age group. Also, children aged from six months to 35 months, no clinical data available for influenza vaccines with ASO3 in this age group. So, Mr. Speaker, those are what is confusing to me and confusing to people.
I know I don’t have much time here, so I’d like to ask the Minister another question. In their H1N1 Slow the Spread information pamphlet that they have, they say the adjuvant in Canada’s H1N1 vaccine is made up of natural ingredients such as water, oil and vitamin E, which, yes, that’s in there. But, Mr. Speaker, there’s also something in there call Thimerosal, which contains mercury. Now that’s not in the information, Mr. Speaker.
Again, I think we just have to be upfront with people about what’s in the vaccine and how it’s been tested, because according to the information, like I said, right off of Health Canada’s website, this vaccine has not been clinically tested in its form that we’re administering it in. Thank you.
Thank you. It is actually untrue for the Member to say it hasn’t been tested. Now, it has been tested. Mr. Speaker, I’m asking people to go with the advice of Dr. Butler-Jones who was here on Friday and said that based on the clinical trials, that he is satisfied, that he will recommend this to the people of Canada.
Mr. Speaker, I think the H1N1 pamphlet that the Member is referring to was written quite a few weeks ago and it is true there is a little bit of adjuvant in this vaccine and it is there to boost the effectiveness of the vaccine, but I think that we should be careful that when we talk about what’s in it, you’ve got to think of all the doses, too, and how these interact. I think that only medically trained staff can answer that and if the Member wants me to look at any of the facts that he’s getting from the Public Health Agency, the website -- because I cannot verify what he has in front of him -- I’d be happy to take everything he has and have the doctors look at it and get back to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d be happy to share this information, this product information leaflet on Arepanrix with the Minister so that she can see what I’m talking about.
Again, my concern, Mr. Speaker, is there shouldn’t be any confusion out there publicly. People have to have this information. I’d like to see this summarized for people before they get a shot so they can see what has actually been done with that vaccine. Again, this is a question I asked earlier, but will the Minister look at providing people who are going to get the flu shot with a list of all the ingredients that’s in the vaccine and also the information relative to the clinical testing that hasn’t been done in the children and hasn’t been done in the elderly according to this information I have, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.
The Public Health Agency of Canada has a website also about vaccine myths and it answers questions about that the vaccines don’t work, that there are many serious side effects from vaccines, that because the H1N1 flu vaccine is new it is untested and unsafe, myths that taking the regular flu shot could mean a risk of becoming very ill with H1N1, that another myth is the influenza vaccine can give you influenza, another myth is getting an influenza every year overwhelms and weakens the immune system and there is an answer to the question about the fact that the influenza vaccine contains Thimerosal, which is also known as mercury, which is harmful especially for young children, and that is found not to be the case. I would like to invite the residents to go to that. Another myth is that pregnant women should not get the influenza vaccine and the number nine myth is my child got the influenza vaccine last year so there’s no need to give it again.
So, Mr. Speaker, all of the Ministers across the country and all of the public health officers across the country are aware that there is a lot of misinformation going on and we need to make sure that we get the information out rather than half information. I think the ingredients are not the most important thing always, it’s how much is in it, because I understand on any given day all around us there’s mercury, but the dose that is in the vaccine is very, very low and it’s found not to be harmful. I need to disagree with the Member, because I keep telling the Member that this has been tested. I’m telling him it has been tested on people. So I’d like to make sure that the people know that I have information and we have information that comes out from clinical trials on people that says this vaccine is safe.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
