After several failed attempts to make an appointment for a flu shot, 74-year-old Lola Berkompas hung up the phone and instead sat down for a game of cards with friends on Wednesday.
“I was on the phone so long, my cat got mad at me and bit me,” Berkompas said, laying down cards at the Everett Senior Center. “I’m through with it.”
In previous years, Berkompas and about 180 others relied on the senior center for flu shots. But a shortage of the vaccine has led local health officials and visiting nurses to cancel visits there and at other senior and assisted-living centers, affecting thousands of retirees.
“They keep saying people shouldn’t get excited about it. But they are,” said JoAnne Emery, office specialist at the senior center.
Flu shot clinics had been planned at senior centers in Darrington, Everett, Lynnwood, Marysville and Monroe, as well as Ashley Pointe, a Lake Stevens retirement community, by Visiting Nurse Services of the Northwest. But they were canceled because of the lack of vaccine.
“We still don’t know if we’re going to get any (vaccine), and if we are, how much,” said Diane Kolb, director of business development for the nursing service.
The Snohomish Health District also has canceled plans for vaccinating about 850 group family home residents and members of area senior centers.
With the vaccine being rationed, it would be too difficult to screen out people who did not meet the criteria for being at high risk for serious complications if they get the flu, said Dr. M. Ward Hinds, health officer.
“In the group family homes, they’re not all in the high-priority list,” Hinds said. “Even at the senior centers, people come in who would not be” high priority.
The health district plans to give up to 1,700 doses to area nursing homes, which care for many of the most medically fragile elderly.
Appointments for adult flu shots at the health district are booked through November, and the agency cut off its waiting list at noon Wednesday.
Program coordinators tell seniors to call their doctors. Others hope to receive more vaccine by January.
“We’re encouraging them to keep their eyes and ears open. And we’re doing the same,” said Margaret Nunez, resident services director at Seabrook Assisted Living and Retirement Residence in Everett.
Back at the Everett Senior Center, 86-year-old Michael Cuoco was the only one of four friends playing cards who had managed to get a flu shot. A friend who manages an Arlington retirement home had some left over and gave him a dose for $20.
Berkompas, his friend, said that’s more than she can pay. They usually get shots for free through insurance.
“It’s really a bad scene,” Berkompas said. “It makes you depressed, mad and upset.”
Reporter Sharon Salyer contributed to this report.
Reporter Melissa Slager: 425-339-3465 or mslager@heraldnet.com.
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