H1N1 Vaccine Update for Parents

Posted by:
Commissioner John Auerbach, Department of Public Health

 

 

As of this past weekend, the state has received just over 1 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine. However, this is still less than one third of the total amount of vaccine we have ordered. Each week we receive tens of thousands of vaccine doses in our state but we need hundreds of thousands, and eventually millions, to fully address the need.  According to the latest projections from the federal government, we will see a significant increase in the volume of doses in our vaccine shipments by the second week in December. 

Since it first became available in small amounts in early October, most of the vaccine has been sent to clinical settings.   But because there are thousands of clinical settings that share these shipments, none of them receive enough.  In general, the size of the shipment that a clinical site receives each week is a reflection of the number of patients in the targeted priority groups that it cares for.  However, this varies somewhat based upon the type of vaccine that becomes available each week.  For instance, pregnant women can’t take nasal flu vaccine sprays: so if the only vaccine available is the nasal spray, we cannot send that new quantity to OB/GYNs.  It can however, be administered to healthy children, and would therefore be sent to pediatricians. Regrettably, given the changeability of the production processes we don't know what amounts or what formulations of vaccine doses will become available ahead of time.  This makes it very difficult for clinical practices to plan ahead or to notify their patients of what to expect.

In addition to the shipments to the clinical practices, a smaller quantity goes to local public health departments to conduct a limited number of community-level public clinics, some of which are school-based.  You will be seeing more and more of these public vaccination efforts in the coming weeks and we hope that these will take some pressure off of the clinical sites by offering residents alternative options.

To date, however, as soon as the vaccine arrives at any of the sites, it is quickly administered. Because of the gap between supply and demand, it will continue to be necessary for members of the public to check in periodically with their clinical providers regarding the availability of vaccine or to check http://flu.masspro.org for public clinic listings.  

DPH is as frustrated as you are about the current situation. While we cannot speed up the vaccine production process, we will continue to distribute the vaccine to providers as soon as it becomes available and provide you with the most up to date information on the situation. 

Please remember that while we encourage all residents to utilize the comments section on this blog, DPH will no longer be able to respond to specific questions and comments.

Comments

[Lila Hinchy]

Why is my pediatrician only receiving shipments for the 2 and under population? They are telling me that they do not need these shipments and are as frustrated as we are. My God. Where is the control in the shipments? My kids are school age and so are most of their patients. They have to cancel their clinics. I am a teacher and my collegues are falling by the wayside with this flu every day. (and Santas in the mall want a vaccine). I just want my 3 children (school-age) vaccinated.

[Des]

Hi,

I need to know if there is any non-live, thermiserol free H1N1 vaccine available in Cambridge or Boston MA.

I scheduled an appointment at our local clinic at East Cambridge Health Center for my 2 kids 4 and 6 y.o. this week, and was told when I scheduled the appointment this week that they could be vaccinated with the non live, thermiserol free H1N1 vaccine. When we went to our local clinic at East Cambridge Health Center for our scheduled appointment they refused to vaccinate my children even though they had this vaccine available and we had scheduled an appointment earlier in the week, and turned up to get it.

Do you know which manufacturers are making this shot and where I can get it for my kids because they are not being provided at local clinics even with an appointment.

Thanks,

Des

[Kathleen]

I am a Massachusetts resident and my son is a kindergarten student in a Massachusetts school. Our pediatrician, however, is in Rhode Island. All Rhode Island school-aged children are currently receiving the H1N1 vaccination in school. (How is it that Rhode Island is receiving enough for all their school-aged children?) My pediatrician has available vaccines, but cannot distribute to any school-aged children. If the majority of the available vaccines in Massachusetts are going to clinical settings, how is my son going to his vaccination?

[SF]

As a Massachusetts citizen battling cancer who is being treated with chemotherapy at a major Boston hospital, I am appalled that the H1N1 vaccine has not been offered to a single chemo patient at that hospital as of today. I hear about H1N1 vaccines being available to the general population in other parts of the country, but we haven't yet come close to vaccinating all of the high risk people here. How is it possible that other states are managing this better?

[Kim]

I just can not understand how the vaccine is being distributed. Some pediatricians and General practices have received 400+ doses and vaccinated all healthy children up to age 24 and the elderly at risk and yet my pediatrician has received 100 doses total and has not even done young infants. There needs to be public information on how this is distributed.

[LM]

I think that it is an outrage that residents from other states are allowed to receive the doses that have been allocated for Massachusetts residents at public clinics. It is bad enough that high risk patients still cannot get the vaccinations from their own primary care offices because there are not enough doses to go around.

[Kevin]

I'm a healthcare professional and I can't find a hospital who is willing to give my significant other the H1N1 vaccine/nasal mist despite the fact that we will be traveling to Mexico, a hotbed of H1N1. Its time for the DPH to allow healthcare providers looser strings to provide the vaccine so travelers don't bring it back to Massachusetts. Too many vaccines are still in the refrigerators not being used!

[JD]

CP. Better yet. Doctors can pull a list of patients from the their database and call parents according to ages. rather than having someone call to get on a list. Or do like other states and distribute it through the schools.

arbitrary flu clinics like the ones run last week are ridiculous.

[Marguerite Murphy]

"if there is flu present in your school, this means that there is also flu in your community."

While we await further vaccine shipments, are you aware that School Superintendents and/or local Boards of Health are not posting elevated absentee information (or any absentee information)on the town websites? It would be helpful if the DPH would urge local officials to publish elevated absentee data on town websites so that we can better know the impact of h1n1 not only in our own cities and towns but also in the contiguous areas.

[cp]

I think this is one of the best posts I have read on here. Finally some answers of what is really happening.
Here is the one thing I don't understand though: why don't doctors take down a list of patients who call and then when they get a shipment notify those people. I phone my OB every week, but they must get the vaccines in after I call and then are all out by the time I call again. It is really frustrating as this has been going on for weeks. Not blaming the DPH, but more the individual doctor offices for not doing a better job of who has been asking about the vaccine instead of just using that day on whoever is there and that person may not have even tried to get ahold of the vaccine before that day.