County H1N1 clinics delayed due to lack of vaccine

A shortage of expected H1N1 vaccine has forced El Paso County to cancel its first flu clinics just days after it announced them.

The county is expected to receive about 14,000 doses of H1N1 vaccine in the next two weeks, which is less than half of what was originally anticipated, the county Department of Health and Environment said in a news release. That’s because Colorado received just 50,000 doses this week, slightly more than a quarter of the 183,300 it expected.

“This is frustrating, especially for those individuals who know they have an increased risk and are anxious to get the vaccine,” state Chief Medical Officer Ned Calonge said in a news release from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. “It is also proving difficult for local health departments and others who have set up flu clinics and now may not have enough vaccine this week to conduct them.”

Health care workers remain first in line to be vaccinated, health officials say, because they run the highest risk of exposure as well as the risk of exposing people who are sick and could suffer grave complications. Additionally, widespread absenteeism at hospitals or doctors’ offices could bog down the health care system when it is taxed the most.

After health care workers, the state says any additional vaccine available should go to:

• Children ages 6 months to 4 years.

• School-age children and teens 5-18 with chronic health conditions.

• Pregnant women.

• Parents and caretakers for children younger than 6 months.

The federal recommendations of who should get vaccinated first when supplies are limited are based on surveillance and research about the disease, and they come from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pregnant women, for example, are considered a priority because they are more likely to be hospitalized or even die, and the vaccine is thought to also protect the baby once it is delivered. Vaccinating parents and caretakers of young infants, who cannot be vaccinated and are at especially high risk, creates a cocoon of protection for those babies.

Whatever the rationale, though, the concept doesn’t sit well with those who fear the worst and find themselves last in line, particularly senior citizens who are used to being a high-risk group for seasonal influenza.

One person commented on Gazette.com’s story about upcoming flu clinics: “Glad to know I’m ‘non-priority’. Talk about discrimination. Oh, that’s right, I’m an old white male and discrimination’s legal against me. They still want my tax money.” Another wrote an anonymous letter to The Gazette calling the idea to leave seniors off the list “passive genocide.”

Others, like parents of children with cancer or other high-risk conditions, say the list doesn’t differentiate enough to ensure sick kids get vaccinated before healthy ones.

Eventually, anyone who wants to be vaccinated will likely have the chance, but that’s little consolation after a spike in swine flu in recent weeks that’s hospitalized some, closed schools, and left doctors’ offices and urgent care clinics scrambling.

H1N1 has been mild for most people, but complications that have occurred for some have been serious. Colorado has reported 14 deaths related to the virus.

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