To look at the newspapers today, you’d think the Calgary Flames hockey team painted their faces red, donned some chain mail, armed themselves with swords and attacked anyone who stood in their way en route to a flu vaccine immunization station, then ransacked the place, stealing any vaccine they could get their hands on.The team’s being called every name in the book, because they dared get vaccinated ahead of the public in a private clinic for team members and their families. Who do they think they are? Do they think they’re special? What gives them the right?
Well, let’s look at the answers. Every professional sports team has a private health staff, including a team doctor and supporting staff. When they have a health issue, they don’t suffer in line at the Medi-Centre like the rest of us. They go directly down the hall to the team health facility. Not only that, they probably get whatever’s stocked in that facility for free. It’s called a perk. Are they special? Yes they are. If they weren’t, the fans wouldn’t be willing to pay hundreds of dollars to sit and watch them play each game. Guess what? They’re not the only people who are ‘special’ either. Do you think government ministers, premiers, mayors and prime ministers wait in line at the local health clinic to get a flu shot? If you think they do, you’re not very rooted in this reality.
Is it fair? Of course not. The privileged have always gotten perks that we mere underlings scoff at. It’s the way the world works. So as far as the team is concerned, good on their medical staff for arranging something with better efficiency than the province’s own public health organization. If people should be looking anywhere, it should be at the government, who made the vaccine available to a sports team, but shut clinics down the next day claiming that they had run out of vaccine. They’re the guilty bastards in this debacle, not the team.
[Update] Some middle manager responsible for allowing the team access to the vaccine was fired today.
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