A flu shot ordeal.

[midnight armadillo]

This morning my wife went to the local pharmacy to get a number for the afternoon flu clinic. She got #1. At noon she calls me and says she has #27 in her hand for me and that they're starting in 15 min, 45 min early. I zip on down and play with our 1 year old son while she gets her shot. I arrived at 12:20.

There is a distinct lack of organization at this point...people were milling around, trying to get numbers and find the CDC risk assessment forms (my wife & I are asthmatic). One nurse was in charge of handing out everything and handling all payments, Medicare forms, and checking the risk assessment. The scene shortly descended into utter chaos as over 200 people, most of them elderly, showed up.

This was a total disaster. Overhead from one elderly man to another: "Are we going to live long enough to get this shot?" The scene was such that the local news channel showed up with a reporter and cameraman to film. I got interviewed by them, they asked what I thought my chances were.

Eventually another guy shows up to help run things. He announced they'd do 150 shots or stop at 4pm, whichever came first. They managed 27 shots by 2pm (when I got mine) so I can't imagine they even got past 100 by 4pm. Naturally, there was only 1 nurse giving shots!

What a disaster. Don't even get me started on how we've had flu shot shortages for YEARS and nothing was ever done to boost production...or why we depend on a foreign nation for a critical component of public health.

[DrWeird]

1. Should typical, healthy adults be getting flu shots?

If there's a shortage, why aren't they just given to the elderly, the young, and the ill, instead of healthy adults who don't really need them?

[midnight armadillo]

2. They are being given to high risk people

They are being given to people with various illnesses and the elderly. My wife and I are asthmatics, as I mentioned.

Our pediatrician had their entire stock swiped by the CDC or the MA dept of health, can't remember which. Our 1 year old got his first of two shots for it (they give a diluted dose twice to the real little ones) but now can't get the second one.

[DrWeird]

3. Were there a bunch of people getting them that don't need them?

Sounds like people are rushing out to get them because they heard the news.

[Ilsa]

5. I saw this going on yesterday at a pharmacy. No one was given the shot

if they weren't elderly or had a good health reason (immune deficiency or chronic respiratory illness) for getting the shot. The nurses turned them away and advised them to try their doctors' offices for private coverage or wait a month and try again. So they are turning away healthy younger adults.

[Lars39]

6. What about people that live with someone with

immune deficiency, were they able to be immunized?

[Bridget Burke]

8. Sounds like the others in the crowd were elderly.

The elderly, the very young & those with certain conditions (like asthma) are all in high risk groups. My company usually vaccinates everybody but they're limiting it this year. I usually get one but am not at risk so I'll just take my chances this year.

The British company that made the vaccine lost its license because of bacterial contamination. However, the UK only depended upon them for 10 to 20% of the vaccine supply. The US is going to be about 50% short. Too bad our pharmaceutical companies have other priorities.

[Ilsa]

4. I wonder if it is available in nasal spray form again this year.

I had that last year. Got body aches from it (very mild flu since it is made from live viruses).

After it got started it probably went much faster.

Yep, our national security is at stake by relying on other nations for certain things like our vaxes. I think our govt should do more to make sure this stuff is developed here and available here.

[FlemingsGhost]

7. LOL. Americans really *are* sheep.

"They say, 'Jump!', and you say, 'How high?' ... you're brain dead, you got a fuckin' bullet in your head."

--Zack De la Rocha, RATM

[booksenkatz]

9. As I posted in another thread on this topic

I'm asthmatic and was shocked when I called my dr. this morning and learned that they have no vaccine and were not sure if/when they'd ever get any. I've never had a problem in the past. I called our county health dept. and they said that no one in our entire area has the vaccine, and until then, they are recommending that we wash our hands alot. What a great public health policy, eh?

I then checked and learned that my mom down in Texas is having no problem obtaining the vaccine in D/FW. Why the inequity? I'd love to know how these decisions are made for some areas to receive plenty of vaccine and other areas to receive none whatsoever.

Maybe you have to be asthmatic to understand the fear of not getting a shot this year.

[daisygirl]

14. I think so...

"Maybe you have to be asthmatic to understand the fear of not getting a shot this year."

Probably so. For someone who doesn't have asthma, the flu is a misery, but then you get better. For folks with asthma, it's devastating.

The last year I didn't get a flu shot, I got the flu, then got bronchitis as a complication. The bronchitis lingered for a few weeks before turning into pneumonia. I ended up in the emergency room because I couldn't breathe. When it finally seemed like I was getting well, I got bronchitis again. For about 8 months after first getting the flu, my asthma was not mild/intermittent as it usually is - it was dreadful. I was using a steroid inhaler, nebulized medication 4x/day and still needed the rescue inhaler a couple of times a day. (Normally I only need a rescue inhaler a couple of times a month tops, and no other medication.)

It took the better part of a year for my health to return to normal after one bout of the flu. I've gotten a vaccine every year without fail since then.

The local county health dept is supposed to get their shipment of flu vaccine on the 18th - my hubby (who also has asthma) and I will be right there since neither of us can afford to get the flu.

[depakid]

10. That "foreign nation" we depend on

discovered that up to 1/2 if this year's influenza vaccine wasn't sterilized properly- meaning that your getting one might have caused you to get a serious infection or worse.

Had an American company even discovered the problem in America what do you think that they would have done? Do you think that they'd have passed it along to consumers anyway, knowing the risk?

Before you make disparaging comments about Great Britain, you might want to do a little research into the situation there- as well as the situation in your own country, where the pharmaceutical companyies hold sway over vast areas of policy, regulation and enforcement.

[diamond14]

11. the bush* POGROM....many many Americans will DIE because of

this bush* administration total incompetence....

there was so much they could have done, had they thought of WE THE PEOPLE...now, we will DIE....

WAKE UP AMERICA...


vote for Kerry...boot these bastards OUT....

www.JohnKerry.com

on edit: it is my strong recommendation that EVERYONE stay away from the existing supplies of flu vaccine until we figure out what's wrong with it and why production was STOPPED...there may be something VERY VERY wrong with the vaccine....do not get the flu shot for at least a month, while scientists figure out the problems...

[Karenina]

12. The TRUTH that cannot be spoken

is that the "incompetence" is part and parcel of the POPULATION REDUCTION PLAN.

[qs04]

13. Re:

I'm in one of the larger counties of California's bay area and it was announced yesterday that there was no vaccine availible. I hadn't intended on getting one but I'm sure there were plenty of people who were.