Flu Shots Scarce
By MARIANNE FAVRO and JESSICA GREENE
Updated 1:15 PM PST, Mon, Oct 12, 2009
If you want to get a seasonal flu shot, your choices are limited.
Many people have called their primary care doctors to find they have already gone through their initial shipments. Now they are facing another challenge -- not enough vaccines.
Mollen Immunization Clinics , the nurse clinic provider scheduled to administer regular seasonal flu shots at 600 Rite Aid stores in California, says it doesn't have enough of the vaccine and is canceling those clinics.
Some select Rite Aid Stores in the Bay Area plan to offer the shot by appointment. However, several of the stores NBC Bay Area called in the South Bay had already gone through their shipments and were not expecting more until next perhaps next month.
On top of that, Santa Clara County's shipment of 200,000 doses of the swine flu vaccine will be delayed. There are also delays in San Francisco. California public health officials had anticipated distribution of the injectible vaccine to begin Monday but that date has been pushed back by at least a few weeks.
Some health experts are concerned that the vaccine will be too little, too late. They fear the illness will have had too much time to spready by the time the vaccine becomes available.
The City has only received some doses of the nasal spray version of the swine flu vaccine. But those at highest risk -- pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems -- can't use the nasal version because it is made with a weak strain of the live virus.
City health leaders hope to have 100,000 doses total but public health leaders have not been told when those vaccines will arrive.
First Published: Oct 12, 2009 11:32 AM PST
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