This Ontario family wants a needle-free flu vaccine but can't find it anywhere

A southwestern Ontario family is calling for a needle-free flu vaccine to be publicly funded again so that it's a real option for children this flu season.

Ryan McClanahan has been trying buy a nasal spray, such as FluMist, but says it's impossible to find for his nine-year-old son who has a fear of needles. 

The Ontario Ministry of Health says on its website that the spray can be purchased at pharmacies, but the Chatham-Kent man says he can't find it, despite calling multiple stores in his own city, London and Windsor. 

"I think the government is really missing an opportunity here when we think about the fact that they're currently dealing with a healthcare crisis," he said. "It's a bit of a puzzle. Why, if we have more tools available in our toolkit, are we not using them?" he said. 

Ontario is bracing for cases of the flu to be high this year, while at the same time pediatric intensive care units are already seeing a surge in children fighting respiratory illnesses.

The province said FluMist and other nasal sprays will not be publicly funded this season and that it hasn't covered them for several years. A spokesperson with the Ministry of Health was not able to say when it was last covered but directly people to pharmacies.

"Technically pharmacists don't have the scope to administer the FluMist vaccine because it's not part of the publicly funded program," said Angeline Ng of the Ontario Pharmacists Association. "Instead of being able to administer that at the pharmacy, you would have to get a prescription." 

"It's kind of confusing because a few years ago we could administer it," she said. 

Dose packaging is also an issue for some pharmacies, Ng said, because wholesalers typically sell it in packs of 10. 

"If they don't have another nine patients to dispense those other doses to, those nine doses would sort of go to waste," she said. 

In an email to CBC News, Ontario's Ministry of Health said, "the decision to publicly fund vaccines is determined by factors, such as scientific evidence (e.g., burden of disease and vaccine effectiveness), economic and societal factors, as well as available cost effectiveness information and impact on the health system."

Provincial governments in B.C. and Prince Edward Island publicly fund FluMist. 

"For us, getting the flu vaccine through the nasal mist is a no-brainer," McClanahan said. "It's a completely different experience than trying to do it through a needle injection."

While he said he would be willing to pay-out-of-pocket if he could find a pharmacist who carried it, McClanaghan said getting a price for one dose has also been impossible. He said one pharmacist told him 10 doses could cost upward of $350 from the wholesaler.