U.S. citizens flock to Canada for flu shots

Mary Buffamonti called her doctor in Tonawanda, N.Y., this week and found out that she couldn’t get a flu shot.

So she crossed the Canadian border and went to a clinic in Fort Erie, Ontario, just across the Niagara River from Buffalo, N.Y.

“That was the main thing, the shortage. I didn’t know if I could get a shot or not,” the 77-year-old Mrs. Buffamonti said.

Americans are traveling to Canada for an injection of flu vaccine and a shot at some peace of mind.

They are crossing the Peace Bridge from New York to Ontario.

People in Washington state are driving to a clinic at the Vancouver International Airport in British Columbia.

Others are heading north on Interstate 29 from Minnesota to go to Winnipeg, Manitoba.

And they are crossing from Maine into New Brunswick to go to a clinic in St. Stephen.

It is just a trickle, but the search for flu vaccine in Canada shows the concern people have over the shortage here.

“I think people who are at risk are feeling vulnerable and want protection,” said Dr. Artaj Singh, who runs an urgent-care clinic in Fort Erie that began offering the flu vaccine to Americans this week.

Canada’s provincial governments buy vaccine for residents. Doctors also purchase vaccine for their own patients, and Americans can tap into that supply.

“If Americans show up, we wouldn’t refuse them as long as we have vaccine,” said Mary Narramore, executive director of the private, nonprofit clinic Victorian Order of Nurses in Saint John, New Brunswick.

The Victorian Order of Nurses plans to give vaccinations two days next week at a pharmacy in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, across the St. Croix River from Calais, Maine. People from Maine have signed up for shots, but it’s not clear how many Americans will be vaccinated.

The Vancouver Airport Medical Clinic, a private clinic at Vancouver International Airport, has vaccinated about 200 Americans. But on Tuesday the clinic stopped selling flu shots to walk-in customers so it could have enough vaccine to meet contracts with businesses at the airport that want their employees vaccinated.

“We’ve had such an influx that we just had to cut it off,” said Claudia Moeller, office manager at Vancouver Airport Medical Clinic.

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