Washington state will get an additional 160,000 doses of flu vaccine by January, but even that won’t guarantee that seniors and others at high risk will be able to get flu shots, state health officials said Wednesday.
“I suspect a great many people who should get the flu vaccine this year won’t,” said Donn Moyer, spokesman for the state Health Department. “It’s just not going to happen.”
Federal health officials said Tuesday that about 8 million doses would be allocated to the states, said Dr. M. Ward Hinds, health officer for the Snohomish Health District.
The state Health Department is talking with public health departments across state to distribute the supply “in the most fair way possible,” Moyer said.
Priority will be given to seniors, pregnant women, cancer patients and others with weakened immune systems, and adults with cardiovascular problems such as asthma.
The Snohomish Health District will receive the vaccine regularly, perhaps weekly. “It won’t come in one big lump,” Hinds said.
The countywide public health agency has a list of 3,000 people who meet the high-risk criteria. “We’ll do our best to accommodate those folks,” Hinds said.
Meanwhile, he and other local health officials are trying to figure out how to divvy up any vaccine that may be left over to health care groups that now have none. The public health agency has sold at cost 3,500 doses to local nursing homes and hospitals, Hinds said.
In October, when the health district announced it was rationing its supply of adult vaccine, it was jammed with up to 250 phone calls an hour.
One other indicator of the high demand for the flu shot this year: When employees of Visiting Nurse Services of the Northwest walked in Wednesday morning, 1,000 people had registered online for the 1,500 doses of flu vaccine that will be available Monday.
The reservation-only flu shot clinic for high-risk patients at the Everett Events Center was announced on Tuesday.
The remaining spots were snapped up Wednesday morning. No more reservations are being accepted.
The organization will have a similar flu shot clinic Nov. 30 in Seattle.
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
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