Gimme the Cure

After months of healing, anticipation, and fear/paranoia, Manitobans started getting their H1N1 shots today. The vaccine for the dangerous new sickness was approved by the federal government last week, and the provinces rushed to get it in and clinics in place. In Winnipeg, people lined up for hours. And in remote northern communities, the vaccine arrived early this morning and nurses and community officials rushed to set up immunization centres. Work sent me up to Garden Hill First Nation – one of the communities hardest hit by H1N1 back in the spring. It was a fast trip up and back to the city, but it was a really fun and eyeopening experience. Everyone there was really friendly and accommodating, and it’s an absolutely beautiful part of the province.

Landing at the Garden Hill airport. It’s about 700 km northwest of Winnipeg, so you have to fly there. It took about an hour and fifteen minutes.

The reserve is on a different island than the airport, so we had to take a hovercraft over.

CBC videographer John Einarson.

Johnny getting some scenics.

The school gym became the vaccination clinic.

Garden Hill Chief Dino Flett and MKO Grand Chief David Harper fill out consent forms to get their shots.

Finally…the needle lots of people have been waiting for for months.

We didn’t get to see a whole lot of activity at the clinic before we left. They were opening it up to members this afternoon, and we had to leave at 12:30 to catch our plane back. There was a pretty prevalent atmosphere of relief in the community that the vaccine was finally there. I got the sense that almost all of the 4500 people who live in Garden Hill know at least one person who got the H1N1 flu last spring. Still, there is some apprehension among members; worry about potential side effects from the vaccine. So the leadership is doing their part to encourage everyone to get the shot. It’ll take a lot of people rolling up their sleeves to really stop this virus in its tracks.