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Every now and then, even Gothamist has to stay home and nurse that fever, runny nose, and cough that comes with the perennial flu. And with the Chiron Corporation (Emeryville, CA), the major global producer of the flu vaccine, announcing that it might not meet its expected output this year, getting your annual shot may prove tough to find. Though more doses will be manufactured this year than in 2004, demand will likely again exceed supply in 2005.
If the occasional annoying symptoms of the flu don't really seem to bog you down, the vaccine might not be for you. But the NYC Health Commissioner recommends that the following folk get a shot in the arm: People over 65, children aged 6 to 23 months, nursing home residents, health care workers directly caring for patients (radiologists excluded), pregnant women, those with chronic illnesses, and those with an infant younger than under 6 months old at home.
For more information or to find where you can get a flu shot, visit the NYC Department of Health Website or call 311. And gesundheit!
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Listen....something's rotten in the state of medicine. I refer to the flu vaccine. We (docs and the public) have been led to believe that the ails that produced last year's disgusting flu vaccine shortage, the one that had me buying black market flu vaccine from Canada just to give my elderly and HIV patients the protection they deserved, was all but solved this year.
Chiron had a clean factory in the UK, two domestic manufacturers were
A-OK. Then, in early October, my colleagues were getting their first allocations of vaccine.
Without fail, they received a small fraction of what they ordered. My allocation arrived earlier this week: 10 vials of ten precious doses...out of 150 vials ordered. I called my supplier, who claimed the CDC had ordered release of only 10% of supplies. CDC.gov had no such order. I pointed this out to my supplier, who comforted me by saying "wait another two weeks....we'll get you more."
I smell a conspiracy, perhaps by manufacturers thinking about the fears of an outbreak of avian flu and how much more they can charge (my vials cracked the $100 barrier...they were $35 a vial three years ago)
later in the season. And nycdoh? A spokesperson there told me to send my patients to drug stores advertising flu shots being given in store. She also told me the health department might create a list of doctors willing to "lend" each other flu vaccine until more doses were shipped.