Parents and doctors continue to push back against the Alberta government’s controversial COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
The program has faced fierce and ongoing opposition since the province announced plans earlier this year to charge the vast majority of Albertans $100 for a COVID vaccine.
Determining who is eligible to receive free vaccines has not been simple and the booking process has been criticized for being complicated and confusing.
Additionally, Health Link (Alberta’s one-stop phone number for health information) has been overwhelmed since reservations for COVID and flu vaccines opened to the general public on Monday, leaving some Albertans can’t make appointments.
“My concern is that there are so many barriers now,” said Madeline Anderson, a Calgary mother.
While everyone in her family will receive the flu vaccine for free, she has decided that only her youngest son, who is 11 months old, will receive the COVID vaccine due to cost.
On top of that, he spent hours on the phone on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, trying to reach Health Link.
“I’m extremely angry,” Anderson said. “It’s really unfair. How can it not be intentional?”
Some people give up booking: doctor
Under this year’s system, parents must call Health Link to reserve COVID vaccines for children under 12 years old.
Anderson was finally able to schedule flu vaccine appointments for her children, but she had to make a separate reservation for her baby’s COVID vaccine or they would have waited until late November to attend the combined appointments.
Dr. Elsa Fiedrich, a Calgary pediatrician and neonatologist, hears from parents struggling to vaccinate their children. Some, he said, are giving up.
“Families are confused. They’re frustrated because they spend so much time trying to contact 811 and then they’re basically left hanging,” he said.
“My concern is that this is deterring Albertans who are invested in protecting themselves, their families and their communities from doing everything they can to support a health care system that is already in crisis and burdened in the face of another projected bad viral season.”
In statements shared with CBC News, Primary Care Alberta said Health Link received 24,952 calls between Monday and Wednesday from Albertans looking to book their COVID-19 vaccine, and another 3,691 calls about the flu vaccine.
The process appears to be further complicated by the effort to use all the doses from the pediatric multidose vials once opened.
“Each vaccination call is taking longer to book than [the earlier high-risk rollout]”,” spokeswoman Nicole Merrifield said in an email. “Family reservations for pediatric vaccines should be made through Health Link as our teams are working with public health to pool COVID-19 vaccines so we can maximize doses administered in multi-dose vials.”
According to the agency, Health Link has hired all available staff, extended hours during the week and will adjust staffing as needed.
“Likewise, we are monitoring demand at our public health clinics across the province and opening new vaccination appointments as much as we can,” the statement said.
Health system costs
The Alberta Medical Association is also sounding the alarm about barriers to access.
President Dr. Brian Wirzba is concerned that current rollout issues will result in fewer Albertans getting vaccinated against COVID overall.
“We know that the lower the vaccination rate — particularly in at-risk populations — the greater the risk of people contracting the diseases we are trying to prevent,” he said.
That, he said, could result in more hospitalizations.
“We are very concerned about the ability of our intensive care system to accommodate this winter’s surge,” Wirzba said.
An analysis published by the Alberta Medical Association estimates that each hospitalized case of COVID-19 can cost the health system more than $34,000, according to data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
“Compare a single dose of vaccine at $100 to more than $34,000 per hospitalization,” Wirzba said in a letter to Alberta doctors.
“Instead of paying for a COVID hospitalization, Alberta could vaccinate about 310 people, who would then enjoy better health, productivity and quality of life, without contributing [avoidably] to overloaded emergency rooms and inpatient facilities.
Provincial data show that there were 3,374 COVID-19 hospitalizations during the 2024-25 respiratory virus season and 210 patients were admitted to intensive care.
Alberta Medical Association modeling suggests a reduction in the number of Albertans vaccinated could cost the system millions of dollars. Exactly how much depends on a number of variables.
“Money invested in an efficient and well-managed vaccination program saves the system money,” Wirzba said.
Alberta’s COVID-19 vaccination rates fell from 17 per cent during the 2023-24 virus season to 14 per cent last year.
So far this season, two per cent of Albertans have received the COVID vaccine.
The Ministry of Primary and Preventive Health Services refutes the Alberta Medical Association’s analysis.
“We have a real cost-effectiveness analysis from both NACI (for Canada, US and UK) and Quebec, and they came to the same conclusion: COVID vaccination at this time is cost-effective only for those at highest risk,” press secretary Maddison McKee said in an emailed statement.
“The evidence [the National Advisory Committee on Immunization] and Quebec is overwhelming: universal vaccination would not be cost-effective at this time.”
Quebec is also imposing strict limits on who qualifies for a free COVID vaccine. However, it has included all older people in its coverage, while Alberta has not.
“We are providing publicly funded vaccines generally in accordance with current NACI guidelines. Any suggestion that we should fund universal vaccination, that is, for people outside the highest risk groups, simply ignores the evidence,” McKee said.
Alberta has deviated from guidelines set by NACI, which include a strong recommendation that high-risk groups, including people over 65, get vaccinated against COVID.
NACI also recommends that all other people can receive the COVID vaccine.
Alberta Respiratory Virus Dashboard It shows 312 people have been hospitalized due to COVID since August. Eighteen people have ended up in the intensive care unit and there have been 27 deaths.
