TORONTO -- Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews promised Thursday to investigate whether celebrity athletes jumped the queue for the swine flu shot while other groups are being forced to wait as the province's supply dwindles.
She shares the outrage sparked by reports that professional hockey and basketball players in Toronto got the vaccine while school-age children are still being told to wait their turn, Matthews said.
"I don't care who you are, how rich you are, how famous you are," she said.
"If you're not in the priority group, get out of the line and let the people who are in the priority groups get their vaccination."
Members of the Edmonton Oilers weighed in on the controversy on Thursday.
"The fact that we're together so much, we're using the same water bottles, we're around each other all the time - we're a pretty big risk factor," forward Sam Gagner told TSN's Jermain Franklin. "The fact that we're athletes and we're pretty healthy guys would obviously help us not getting it (the flu) but I think because we're together so often and because we're travelling so much, it makes us a higher risk."
Oilers head coach Pat Quinn declined to get too involved in commenting on the situation, but said he wasn't sure players fell into the designation of "high risk" as technically defined.
"I don't know if they're considered high risk," said head coach Pat Quinn. "I don't believe the players fall into those defined categories, defined by our government, provincially and federally, I think. I don't know if players fall in that area. And I'm not someone that should be answering these questions anyway - that's for the public. This is one of those ethical things. I'm worried about what goes on on the ice, nevermind off it."
As for Ontario, the province is still expected to run out of the regular H1N1 vaccine at the end of the week due to Ottawa's dramatic supply slowdown, Matthews said.
The province has enough vaccine to immunize 2.2 million people, which is intended for the estimated 3.4 million Ontarians who fall under the province's high-priority groups, she said.
They include pregnant women, children between six months and five years of age, people under the age of 65 with chronic conditions, and those living in remote communities.
The province wants to add school-age children to the priority groups, but it doesn't have enough vaccine right now to expand that list, Matthews said.
She said she doesn't yet know how the pro athletes with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors got the shot, or whether it was obtained through Medcan, a private clinic that received 3,000 doses of the vaccine.
"All of our professional health-care providers -- the ones who are administering the vaccine -- are working under exactly the same rules," Matthews said.
"It doesn't matter if it was through a private clinic or through a doctor's office or through one of the public health unit clinics. The priority groups remain the same."
A health employee in Alberta was fired after letting the Calgary Flames jump the swine flu shot queue.
The Oilers were clearly aware of the headlines that story generated when TSN's Franklin asked them on Thursday.
"We're always in the eye of the public all the time, so it's tough because if we're not playing well and everybody's down with the flu, we don't really have an excuse for it," said forward Mike Comrie. "At the same time, there are people that really need it. It's tough to say. For us, after the whole Flames' debacle, it's obviously tough for us to really comment on it. We just got keep moving forward and try to get better from it."
Matthews wouldn't say what the consequences might be in Ontario.
"When it comes to the queue jumpers, that's one of the questions that I'm exploring right now," Matthews said.
Players and staff from both the NHL's Leafs and the NBA's Raptors received the vaccine, but spokesmen for the team say there was no preferential treatment.
"While all professional athletes are considered high risk to exposure and transmission of the flu due to excessive contact with other players, heavy travel requirements and public exposure, only certain players and staff have received the H1N1 vaccine," Raptors spokesman Jim LaBumbard said in an email.
Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns and operates the teams, wouldn't say how many players got the shot, and whether there were underlying health complications.
When asked for their thoughts, players were hesitant to say too much, but did say that hockey players are vulnerable to getting contagious illnesses because they are in such close conditions a lot of the time.
"Players in general, with our immune systems the way they are, we're flying a lot and playing so much hockey, we're probably a little more susceptible," said defenceman Steve Staois. "The problem is, when a guy or two gets the flu, you're always around. You're travelling and guys are trying to fight through it...there isn't really anywhere to hide.
"Our immune systems are vulnerable at times, but so is an elderly person and so is an infant, so that's for the higher-up people in Alberta to decide, not someone playing a game," said Staois.
Players for the Ottawa Senators haven't received the vaccine, said spokesman Phil Legault.
"We are waiting in line just like everyone else here in Ottawa," he said from Ottawa. "They'll wait in line until it's their turn."
It's insulting that millionaire athletes got the shot while people are dying in Ontario, including the latest suspected victim of H1N1 who was just two months old, said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.
"(People) shake their head with disbelief that in the province of Ontario, where we have a universal public health-care system, that people with deep pockets can still buy their way to the front of the line and that pro athletes somehow take precedence over kindergarten kids," she said.
"That is absolutely outrageous and it has to stop."
Staios said the players were given the chance to get the vaccine and did as they were told - there was no intention of cutting ahead of anyone.
"I think if you ask yourself the question, if you had the opportunity to get the shot, you'd probably make the same decision, so I don't think you can fault the players for that," he said. "It's one of those things where I understand why people would be upset about it. It looks like whoever made those decisions had the axe come down on them. It's one of those unfortunate situations but I don't think there's much blame that really could go to the people who are getting the flu shots. I think that everybody's told us that that's the right thing to do."
Doctors or health officials who provide the vaccine to people who aren't on the priority list must be disciplined, she added.
As of Wednesday, there were 37 swine-flu related deaths in Ontario since April, including a two-month-old infant and two seniors, all from the London area.
"The death of this two-month-old infant is the first recorded in Ontario of a child under the age of one year," the Middlesex-London Health Unit said in a release Wednesday.
Provincial health officials say 108 people have been hospitalized with H1N1, 65 of which are in intensive care.
About 500,000 people have been vaccinated in Ontario's public health clinics and much of the 500,000 doses that were provided to doctors have been used, Matthews told the legislature Thursday.
Hospitals and other centres like nursing homes have another 350,000 doses that are being administered, she added.
Ontario's chief medical officer of health has said the province will backstop health units that are running out of the H1N1 shot with an additional 189,000 doses of the regular vaccine it received over the week. It also has 86,800 doses of the unadjuvanted vaccine intended for pregnant women.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday that 1.8 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine will be shipped to the provinces next week, but Matthews said she still doesn't know how much Ontario will get or when the new supplies will arrive.
- files from TSN's Jermain Franklin were used in this report