Flame Shame
By Adrian Dater
November 5, 2009
Remember the scene in “Titanic” when the Billy Zane character shoves the women and children out of the way to jump in one of the lifeboats to save his own skin first? Billy Zane character, meet your 2009-10 Calgary Flames.
In case you hadn’t heard: a major scandal erupted in Calgary when it was learned that Flames players and management – along with their family members, and some friends – received vaccinations for the H1N1 virus. There is a shortage of the vaccine in Canada, and tens of thousands of pregnant women, the elderly and young children, have been told they can’t get vaccinated just yet; they must wait until government officials get enough doses for them.
But that didn’t stop the Flames and all their friends and family from skirting the lines, jumping ahead of women and children, to get their shots.
A mid-level bureaucrat suspected of pulling the strings for the Flames has been fired, and more are to come according to an outraged Alberta Health Services chairman, Ken Hughes.
Of course, the Flames are playing dumb, saying they had no idea they were jumping the lines. Baloney. They knew exactly what they were doing. They were the precious Calgary Flames, and their health and safety should naturally come first. Not to mention, their own wives and kids, and their uncles and a couple buddies of the uncle and so on.
They are NHL hockey players, so naturally they shouldn’t have to wait in line with all the other riffraff. Alberta Health Services, according to the Edmonton Journal, reported three times the number of H1N1 hospitalizations and deaths from Oct. 18-24 than the previous week. If any of those deaths can be attributed to their not receiving a vaccination before any Flames player or friend/family member did, this is going to turn into a MAJOR scandal – as well it should.
You just have to love the rationale of Flames president Ken King, when confronted with questions about the story. Here is what the AP reported: “King said they felt the shots were a priority for the players because of their extensive cross-border travel and the close-contact physical nature of their sport. He also said they didn’t want to cause a commotion by having the players stand in line at a public clinic.”
Got that folks? The Flames deserved to jump the queue ahead of women and children and sick elderly people because, you know, those sick people would have mobbed Olli Jokinen and Brent Sutter and Craig Conroy. Who cares about your own health and well being when you can get Dion Phaneuf’s autograph?
Flames players, the management, their family members and their buddies should all hang their heads in deep shame today. But they probably won’t. After all, they got theirs. Besides, maybe they’ll make an extra, token visit to the local hospitals this year and sign a few autographs. Those sick people will love that.
Adrian Dater covers the NHL for the Denver Post
