Pembroke man seeks flu shot in Canada

PEMBROKE – More than 50 years ago, Canadian military cooks saved a U.S. Army grunt from eating cardboard-tasting K-rations.

Today, Canadians are poised to save Sid Bahrt’s life.

On Wednesday, the 89-year-old will travel to St. George, New Brunswick – about an hour’s drive from his home – for a flu shot. Bahrt would have preferred getting the shot from his own doctor, but the office doesn’t have the vaccine.

The Pembroke environmentalist and nature photographer, like millions of Americans, is trapped in a medical quagmire. There isn’t enough vaccine to go around.

Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that more than 36,000 people in the United States -including 70 Mainers – died from flu complications.

In the past few weeks, Americans learned that half of the country’s supply of vaccine was lost when a British regulatory authority suspended the license of one of two suppliers to the United States because of bacterial contamination of the vaccine.

Shortly after the shortage was acknowledged, the CDC announced its plan to ration vaccines and asked all healthy Americans to forego their shot in favor of the elderly, the sick and those under 2.

Bahrt has had a flu shot every year since he returned from the U.S. Army in 1946. He still has a copy of his shot record from World War II. The U.S. Army developed the first influenza vaccine in 1940 and it became available commercially in 1945.

“During World War II, I had to travel a lot of times to Cherbourg [France] to get supplies. The Army said I’d have to carry K-rations which wasn’t my idea of a good meal,” he said.

Each time he made the run, Bahrt stopped at a Canadian military unit and they fed him lunch.

“I kinda chuckle when I think now I am going back to the Canadians and have them do what I expected Uncle Sam would do for me,” he said.

Bahrt said he did not blame President George W. Bush. “But I think the government itself has been careless with our lives,” he said. “I think it is embarrassing. When you think what we are now spending on the Iraqi war, let’s spend as much money as we need to get as much vaccine as we need for all the people who need it.”

In an effort to make up the difference, Bush officials are scrambling to find new sources including purchasing the vaccine from manufacturers in Canada and Germany -a fact not lost on Bahrt who buys some of his prescription drugs in Canada. The Bush administration has refused to approve the importation of prescription drugs because of safety issues.

“What’s the difference?” Bahrt asked.

He said he learned of the shortage through newspaper articles. “I was getting a little concerned about what I was reading. Then I felt relaxed when they said we’d be picked out on the basis of age and needs. I know I have a little asthma attacks and a shot would be important in my case. I just sat back and thought the government was going to take care of it,” he said.

After his doctor told him to look elsewhere, he checked with the Veterans Administration, a first. He had never asked the VA for a thing. “I always felt I was lucky enough through Normandy to Germany without being wounded. Or having any claim,” he said. “When I left the Army I wouldn’t take any veteran number or anything.”

But when he learned another veteran had gotten a flu shot at the VA clinic in Calais, he decided to try. The clinic was out of vaccine. “That got me concerned and I realized I’d better work a little harder at it. The suggestion was made to go to Canada,” he said. VA officials in Calais said Friday they hoped to have another shipment of vaccine in two weeks.

When word spread that the Canadians had plenty of vaccine, several Americans took advantage of a vaccination program put on by the Victoria Order of Nurses. They were at a St. Stephen, New Brunswick pharmacy about two weeks ago and again on Tuesday.

VON told the Canadian Broadcast Corporation News that there was plenty of vaccine to go around. On Tuesday 140 Americans got the shot in St. Stephen.

Bahrt was too late to get his name on the list for St. Stephen. So he called around the province and got an appointment in Oromocto, near Fredericton; a two-hour drive.

Then he learned about the pharmacy in St. George, a 25-minute trip from Calais. The woman told him they had three openings left. He added his name to the list. His appointment is next week.

Bahrt, who has traveled the world from South America to Africa, chuckled as he thought about traveling to a foreign country for a shot. “I’ve never been to St. George,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

The state’s U.S. congressional delegation wants answers. U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe has co-sponsored legislation to address the critical shortage of influenza vaccine.

“Mainers should not have to travel across the border to Canada to get a flu shot,” Snowe said. “This year’s vaccine shortage necessitates a wholesale review of how we as a nation have ended up in a situation that has left many of our most vulnerable citizens at risk. Congress must and will act to find a ways to ensure that more vaccine manufacturers want to supply vaccine not just this year, but for the future as well. Indeed, in a few months, manufacturers must begin work on next year’s vaccine. That means that we must find solutions and identify additional vaccine producers to ensure that there are enough doses for next year, so Mainers can get their shots in Portland or Presque Isle, not in Montreal.”

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said Friday she was working with the chairman of the Senate health committee on a comprehensive proposal that addresses not just the short-term problems with this year’s flu vaccine supply, but that also revitalizes the country’s efforts to ensure an adequate supply of all vaccines, including increased research to develop new and improved vaccines.