RORY MACLEAN
News Editor

For nursing student Heather Martin, deciding whether or not to allow her children to be vaccinated for the H1N1 influenza virus was a tough decision.

    With so much information circulating in the media and around the water cooler, fueling debate over the severity of the threat posed by the new virus and the safety of the new vaccine, Martin decided to take it upon herself to gauge public opinion on H1N1, and created a poll that can be taken online at saskcan.webs.com/poll.htm.

    “I was looking for some answers to some personal questions as to whether I was going to get my own kids vaccinated,” said Martin. She says the more she looked into it, the harder time she had answering those questions.

    The rush to complete tests on the vaccine and the difficulty scientists have had growing the virus worried her.

“They don’t have the conditions optimized yet to grow this particular virus… It’s been behaving quite differently from the norm, that’s why it’s sort of a brand new thing for everybody because it’s not what everyone expected.”

That’s why there is a shortage of vaccines, she said.

“This vaccine was pushed through the approval process… I had to decide what kind of risk I could live with,” she said. “I really had to look at my belief system and whether that fit with my efforts as a parent to protect my children.”    

While she eventually did decide to have her children vaccinated, Martin felt the poll would help illustrate public confusion about the pandemic.

She is the first to admit, however, that her methodology is not scientifically rigorous.

“Is it something that’s going to stand up statistically? Heavens, no. I’m not a statistician; I’m admitting that right now. This is very conversational. It’s not something that’s going to be published in a journal or that’s going to stand up to peer review.”

The questions can be a bit pointed, with a notable lack of positive answers concerning the government’s response to the pandemic. There is, however, a space at the bottom of the survey to leave comments. Martin says she will post these comments on a website once she compiles the data.

As of Nov. 16, about 220 people had answered the survey. It has been up for less than a week.

“I’m hoping to get at least 500. Anything after that is a bonus,” said Martin.

The survey contains a range of questions including how many people have been sick in respondents’ workplaces, whether they or their children have been vaccinated, if they are familiar with a list of the ingredients in the vaccine and where they get their information about the virus.

Depending on how many responses she gets, Martin hopes to send the results to the provincial health ministry.

“What I’m seeing from my poll so far is that the majority of people have no intention of getting vaccinated,” said Martin.

She feels if health authorities can hear a bit about why people are not getting vaccinated, “maybe they can adapt the information they’re giving to the public.”

According to Martin, less than five of 220 respondents know all the ingredients in the vaccine. Most have “no clue,” she said.

Respondents have been voicing concerns about the difficulties posed by the shortage of vaccines, including different family members being given different priority for immunization. People have also been saying they would like to hear more on the pandemic from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, “something to show that he’s sort of with us in all this,” said Martin.

“These are the worries of real people,” she said.

Martin hopes to close the poll in the next few weeks and begin compiling the data.

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photo: Alec Couros