I’m in Alberta Canada and flu shots have been delayed minimum of a month to previous years. As far as I know only the young and over 65 can get the shot in Alberta (not so in Ontario as I see it advertised on TV). I might be able to buy a flu shot. My question is - are we missing something here? What is the truth about this delay? Do they know something we don’t about the strains to be contained in the flu shot? Right now in my area so many people are sick with the cold & flu that it makes one wonder why this isn’t available. By the way, several younger healthy very fit adults are getting pneumonia with this flu. I’m starting to wonder what I’m not being told.
In Olympia, WA our health provider has just two local flu clinics this year (last year there were four). I have not heard of shortages but did wonder of the shortened schedule
Prepping Gal – at 18:25
Just returned from a trip to Kalispel and they are holding flu clinics if you want to slip down there, you are only 4 hours away but I would take a driver with you in case you react to the shot. Cost is 25$
Prepping Gal – at 18:25 --- I’ve heard pretty much the same thing here in southeastern Virginia. First we were told that there was an abundance of seasonal flu vaccine this year, and it would be available the first part of November, and now we’re being told that it could be delayed by up to 60 days. Uhm, that puts the availability into January…
I’m providing the flu vaccine for my orgs employees (approx. 700). We were to get the shots in early November, now, at the earliest, we are looking at early December. There have been production problems with the vaccine. Strange that other provinces will get it earlier. Oh well, it is free and universally available here in Ontario for those who work or lives here.
My doctor’s office was doing vaccinations 2 to 3 weeks ago. However, because I was in the middle of a very severe respiratory infection/flu (?) which put me in the hospital (complications of the illness plus very bad asthma), they were kind enough to set aside a vaccination for me. I’m supposed to be vaccinated next week (flu and pneumonia), health permitting. This is a nice change after the last two years, when I had to stand in line for hours at a store for my vaccination as a high-risk patient because my doctor was not able to get any vaccinations.
One week ago, routine check-up appointment with internist, major teaching hospital, no problem.
no name @00:12
What country are you in? - what general area or city??
Dallas TX
There were problems getting one of the components of the vaccine to grow. I’ve seen reports about this in UK papers for several months, but I haven’t been able to find anything about a delay in US papers.
In recent weeks though, the CDC has said that supply will not be a problem… and, oh by the way, you can get a flu shot even in December or January.
I assumed that the CDC comment was a gentle first hint that some vaccine would be late.
Now reports of delayed shipments are showing up in the US papers. I have no idea how widespread the problem is, but in a quick check of newspapers today I found reports of a delay in shipment or partial shipments in small communities in Idaho, Iowa, Colorado, Montana, North Carolina, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas, West Virginia. Many of these communities have postponed their flu clinics.
On the other hand, I called a dozen flu shot clinics across PA a few days ago, and they all have vaccine.
There are delays in the U.S. in flu vax deliveries - however, this problem seems to be affecting only to pediatricians. A child will be protected from seasonal flu beginning two weeks after they receive the vax, and this protection will last then for six months. Is there any reason to believe they might be holding back the pediatric vaccines in order to extend any protection they might offer into late Spring and early Summer (a child receiving a vax on Dec. 1st would theoretically be protected from Dec. 15th through June 15th). They did announce within the last two weeks that they believe that seasonal vax may provide some level of protection against H5N1. It was within two days of that announcement that indications were that pediatric vaccinations seemed to have been suddenly delayed.
My own pediatrician noted these delays on her website and said flu vax clinics would be taking place during Nov. and Dec. (High-risk children will receive the flu vax at the normal time). Other pediatricians here in the NYC metro area are having similar problems obtaining receipt of their pediatric seasonal flu vaccines. From Washington D.C.:
From ABC 7 News: Location: Washington Doctors Complain of Flu-Shot Distribution Delays
Posted: October 15, 2006 2:12 PM EST URL: http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1006/369150.html
Washington (AP) - Shipment delays are causing sporadic shortages of the flu vaccine, barely two weeks into the flU shot season.
That’s forcing some area doctors to postpone clinics or serve only high-risk patients.
Northern Virginia pediatrician Gary Bergman says he’s been notified that his offices in Alexandria and Fairfax County will receive only 600 of 7,000 doses scheduled by November first.
He says his staff has spent hours rescheduling hundreds of children who had been signed up for flu shots.
David Anspaugh of Bull Run Family Practice in Manassas says his office has only 500 of the 35-hundred doses it ordered in January.
But not all providers are worried. Immunizations at grocery and drug store chains are proceeding with few apparent difficulties.
Gerberding has something to say about the subject in this Washington Post article. I wonder if she will have a calming message next Spring for parents saying that they should not worry unduly about H5N1 because, luckily, their children got their seasonl flu vax so late this year. She is offering absolutely no cogent reasons for the delays in shipping flu vax, and is telling people to go ahead and get vaccinated in January with a straight face.
Oct. 15, 2006, 9:06PM / By SUSAN LEVINE / Washington Post / http://tinyurl.com/y5g3bs
Flu-shot providers get a dose of trouble with delivery delays
Some physicians are unable to meet the demand while retail chains have few difficulties
WASHINGTON - Barely two weeks into the flu-shot season, the promise of a record supply of vaccine is being tarnished by shipment delays that are causing sporadic shortages and forcing some doctors to postpone clinics or serve only high-risk patients.
About 26 million doses were distributed across the country in September, and federal officials expected that three times that many would be on their way by the end of this month. Yet having vaccine in the pipeline doesn’t mean it’s getting to thousands of destinations on time.
Immunizations at grocery and drugstore chains are proceeding with few apparent difficulties, but physicians who can’t meet demand are questioning the stability and fairness of the distribution.
“It is a real mess,” Virginia pediatrician Gary Bergman said last week after being notified that his offices in Alexandria and Fairfax County would receive only 600 of 7,000 doses scheduled by Nov. 1 and “no commitment thereafter.” His staff has spent hours rescheduling hundreds of children who had been signed up for flu shots.
“We have a lot of angry and panicking parents now,” Bergman said.
Julie Gerberding, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, acknowledged the kinks in the system in a speech several days ago to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
It’s not that some customers were given preferential treatment in deliveries, she indicated; manufacturers and distributors said they would try to ensure that all orders were at least partially filled early on.
“But we all know that this is easier said than done,” Gerberding said. “We still have providers who do not have vaccine when a large shopping chain does.”
Given the CDC’s limited ability to direct distribution, the agency is warning that many orders will not be fully filled until late November and that “significant effort” should be made to continue immunizations into January.
The concerns echo the disruptions of the past several years and again threaten the public health message that urges flu vaccination for nearly three-quarters of all Americans — 36,000 of whom die annually from the virus.
In 2004, contamination fears at one manufacturing plant cut the nation’s expected supply in half, causing acute shortages and anxiety. In 2005, distribution problems initially forced providers to target higher-risk individuals for the vaccine. In the end, only 81 million people were immunized and a glut of vaccine developed. Several million doses were thrown away.
My pediatricians office has been waiting for their supply since the beginning of the month. They told me on Friday to check in after Nov. 1. I’m picking my kiddos up early from school and going to a public clinic this afternoon.
Edna Mode - at 13:01,
But if my crazy theory is at all correct, and they are purposely holding back shipments of the seasonal flu vax to pediatric offices because they think it “might” offer some protection against H5N1, then I’d say that that implies that they think we will not have any H5N1 problem during the normal flu season here (Winter), but rather that protection from H5N1 would be needed in late-Spring/early-Summer.
It’s the timing that I find interesting, considering everything else that is going on with the H5N1 virus.
If that is what they are thinking, and they are trying to offer the children (the hightest-risk H5N1 age group) the slight protection against H5N1 that the regular flu vax may offer, then we will want to get our kids the seasonal flu vaccine later rather than earlier.
I would agree that it is more important that my children aquire some protection against H5N1 rather than an early case of seasonal flu, if there is a choice. CDC may have made that choice for us, though, by delaying the pediatric vax shipments.
If they have delayed the pediatric vax shipments for this reason, their reasoning may be quite sound (although the degree of protection offered by the seasonal vax is conjectural, unless they have been vaxing villages in Indonesia with regular flu vax and have been getting the kind of positive outcomes they spoke of as a benefit, i.e. sickness but not death).
If pandemic arrives in the Spring/Summer, and the seasonal flu will indeed offer some protection, there is no way they will be able to create additional seasonal flu vax in their manufacturing plants between now and then. This seasonal vax, already manufactured (and already in the box and ready for shipping for some time probably), must cover that potential need. (Gerberding has stated above that they don’t control and direct the timing of vax shipments, but I’m sure there is plenty of cooperation between CDC and vax manufacturers/shippers when necessary).
The way things have been going, if they are worried about a Spring/Summer pandemic erruption, I’d say as a layman that that guess would be a fair one, and it looks far more probable than a pandemic commencing within the next 8 weeks, for example. Looking at the odds that way, I think I will get my children vaxed later, rather than sooner (I’d rather they have that extended protection against something much worse than the seasonal flu).
And as far as Gerberding and the CDC goes, as always, “watch what they do, not what they say.” If H5N1 arrives in the Spring, and the kids still have some protection from their seasonal flu vax at that time, Gerberding will look like a hero. And nobody is questioning the reasons for the delays, or the excuses, except the kinds of people who come here to FW, so there won’t be much pressure on them to offer better excuses, or spill the beans and potentially “panic” people. The vaxes will arrive just at the 11th hour, everyone will forget about the issue, and no one will be the wiser. An interesting theory I think, although just a theory at this point.
Do you think the peds office is running low on flu shots because they requested mercury free shots? Flu shots do have it, but you can request non-mercury (thermosal) for kids. Just floating an additonal reason for consideration.
Leo7 — as far as I know, the flu shots kids get have the thimerosol in them. They might make some w/o thimerosol, but I believe most are the “large lot” kind with the preservative.
We’ve seen a delay in shots here — it’s funny, that Gary Bergman is the head of my kids pediatricians office. I just can’t believe the CDDC is behind it though — it seems they are more into minimizing the threat of H5N1 or any other pandemic. If anyone there had solid reason to believe that a pandemic was going to arriev this spring, it seems we would already know about it. I mean, sure, there’s a lot going on right now — but — I don’t know that anyone here knows for sure there’s a pandemic arriving this, say, February — please correct me if I am wrong….
Called ped to make follow-up apt for toddler’s ear infection and was informed they received the flu vaccine today. My kids will get them next Monday. I did call the ped in early Sept. and had them put my kids on a list to be called so we’d get priority. Also, they wanted to give my 5yo the flumist but I said I wanted her to have the shot.
Average Concerned Mom - at 14:37
I think there is no way they have any solid information that a pandemic is going to arrive this Spring. If they are pushing back the pediatric vaxes for the reasons mentioned, it would be just to hedge their bets. They may know more than we do on the subject of timing, but probably not much more. A panemic is not happening now, but do they think one is more likely then - and delaying pediatric vaxes is a very quiet way to be a bit more prepared for that possibility.
hey something ate my post!
Anyway, maybe I am more trusting, but I really doubt there is some plan to delay ped vaccinces. I think it’s just someone screwing up, pure and simple. And plenty of adult docs haven’t gotten it either (neither mine nore HD’s have). And if it’s delayed a bit that’s okay - the worst of the flu season doesn’t hit until Dec-March.
A friend who is a ped said the flumist is better in terms of covering more strains than the seasonal shot. If the delays look like they’ll be even longer then we’ll go that route. Evidently there is plenty of that available.
FYI - the county health department here in Oklahoma, where we’ve gotten our flue shots the past two year, still doesn’t have any. They said to check back at the first of next month.
There have been newspaper reports for at least three months that they were having trouble getting one component of the vaccine to grow.
At least there were reports in newspapers in the United Kingdom.
I don’t why they didn’t feel that info could be shared with the public in the U.S.
Average concerned Mom and others:
I posted an article in the news thread Oct 17 that explains some of the delay for flu shots for children if anyone is interested. I tried to drag it over here, but it didn’t work.