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Delay in flu shot shipment forces health officials to postpone clinic
By Lynn Hotaling
Jackson County residents who were planning to receive a flu shot this week will to wait longer.
Local health officials have announced that the flu vaccination clinic scheduled for this weekend has been postponed for two weeks.
The explanation given was that delays in shipments from the manufacturer mean that vaccine will not arrive at the Jackson County Department of Public Health in time for this week’s planned clinic.
The Health Department has rescheduled the flu vaccinations for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 18-20. Hours will be from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and from 1 until 5 p.m. on Sunday, according to a Health Department recording.
Cost for the flu shot will be $25, and cost for the pneumonia shot will be $30. Patients covered by Medicare and Medicaid will be vaccinated at no charge provided they bring their cards. Clinic personnel will go out into the parking lot and vaccinate persons who prefer to remain in their cars, according to Nursing Supervior Carla Morgan. Someone will have to come inside to fill out paperwork for the person, however, Morgan said.
Earlier announcements had indicated that those at high risk for influenza complications (persons 65 and older; residents of long-term care facilities; persons aged 2-64 with chronic health conditions; children aged 6 to 23 months; pregnant women; health-care personnel who provide direct patient care; household contacts and out-of-home caregivers of children under 6 months) could receive shots at the Health Department prior to Oct. 24; however, no vaccine was available for those individuals either.
Morgan confirmed that the local Health Department had not received any vaccine so far this year. However, she emphasized that enough vaccine should arrive to treat everyone who wishes to receive a shot.
“There is no shortage – there’s tons of vaccine,” she said Monday. “The delay is in shipments from the manufacturer.”
Morgan indicated that county residents should be adequately protected despite the delay.
“The peak flu season in North Carolina is in February,” she said.
The local Health Department expected to be well-supplied, Morgan said.
“We always order vaccine in January,” she said.
The Health Department has no plans to offer vaccinations to the high-risk group first because after Nov. 18 there should be plenty of vaccine to go around, Morgan said.
“We can’t separate out high-risk because after Oct. 24 the vaccine was released to everybody,” Morgan said.
Guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control state that “Beginning Oct. 24, all persons will be eligible for vaccination.”
The CDC document offers no guidance to departments that didn’t receive vaccine in time to offer it to high-risk groups prior to Oct. 24. It does indicate, however, that despite last year’s widespread shortages that limited administration of the vaccine to high-risk, millions of doses of flu vaccine went unused.
Though Morgan did not comment on the specific manufacturer who failed to ship vaccine ordered for Jackson County, published reports indicate that delays in shipments by Chiron, the manufacturer blamed for last year’s shortages, are leading to “spot shortages.”
USA Today reported Monday that production for this year was delayed due to changes Chiron implemented to address last year’s problems.
Included in that report was information that a survey of state doctors by the N.C. Academy of Family Physicians found most without flu vaccine.
Sylva Medical Center said their office chose not to order the vaccine because their patients could get immunized at the Health Department as well as at clinics offered by several large retailers.
For additional information concerning flu shots, call 586-8994, ext. 269.
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