Flames players get vaccines before everyone else

The Alberta government plans to investigate how the Calgary Flames managed to get access to swine flu shots for their players while their fellow Albertans lined for hours to get theirs. Flames president Ken King insisted the team had followed the protocol set out by Alberta Health Services, suggesting players ran a higher risk of contracting the virus and that their presence at public clinics might have created a "sideshow" that delayed things even further. Opposition politicians in the province, however, are having none of it. "It’s a failure of leadership that we are providing vaccines willy-nilly to whoever has money, to whoever has access, when cancer patients, when chronic lung patients, when pregnant women and their children can’t get it," said Alberta Liberal Leader David Swann. Alberta’s Conservative government has come under fire in recent days for the slow-pace with which vaccines have been doled out and, beginning Thursday, will limit access to the vaccine to high-risk groups. Meanwhile, Alberta Health Minister Ron Liepert said he will find out whether the shots given to Flames’ players were "inappropriately diverted."The Chronicle Herald