Swine Flu Vaccines For NYC School Kids Start Today

The NYC Health department is starting its swine flu vaccine program at 128 elementary schools today. According to WCBS 2, 40,000 doses were set aside for the students: "School nurses at those sites will administer the nasal spray vaccine starting Wednesday to students whose parents have signed consent forms. Nurses expect to vaccinate 15 to 25 kids per day, per school."

This is the first "wave" of the vaccine-in-schools program, in which the city has asked parents to sign consent forms for their children to receive the vaccine. More elementary schools will be added, and then middle and high school students will be able to get the vaccine at weekend clinics. (The staggering is due to waiting for the vaccine supplies to come in.) In fact, any school student who goes to a weekend clinic will get priority for the vaccine over the general public. Other high priority groups are pregnant women, people aged 6 months to 24 years, people aged 25 to 64 years with long-term health problems, people who live with or care for children younger than 6 months and health care and emergency medical workers.

One parent said, "I don't think it's more dangerous than the flu that's already around, but I think it's a good idea to get vaccinated." And two famous young students—though in Washington D.C.—did get both their swine flu and seasonal flu vaccines: Sasha and Malia Obama. The White House issued a statement, "All four members of the Obama family have received their seasonal flu vaccine. Malia and Sasha were both vaccinated for H1N1 last week, after the vaccine became available to Washington, DC schoolchildren." The President and First Lady, who got the seasonal flu vaccine, haven't received the swine flu one yet because they are not in a priority group.