Patients who couldn’t get the swine flu vaccine haven’t wasted any time signing up for appointments now that it’s open to anyone who wants it.
“We’re definitely seeing an increase in demand,” said Rachel Nowak, who coordinates immunization services for Bartell Drugs.
Bartell and other area pharmacies and clinics are offering the immunizations by appointment.
Among the groups who haven’t been able to get the vaccine until now are healthy adults 25 and older.
Calls started to build Thursday “and we got a bigger increase today,” she said Friday. “Those people who weren’t on the priority list are coming in and getting the vaccinations now.”
The Snohomish Health District started getting calls from people who wanted the vaccine Thursday morning, the first day the restrictions were lifted, said Kelly Sylliaasen, vaccine coordinator.
The public health agency is offering the vaccine free at its clinics in Everett and Lynnwood to uninsured and low-income people.
“Our phone bank was ringing off the hook every time I would pop in there,” Sylliaasen said. “We’re completely booked through Tuesday.”
Many of the calls are from seniors, who weren’t on the priority list for getting the swine flu immunization because the virus has hit younger people far harder. This despite the fact that seniors are given priority to getting the seasonal flu immunization, which has caused confusion since swine flu immunizations began in October.
At Sky Valley Family Medicine in Sultan, patients showed up for the swine flu vaccine when the doors opened Thursday, said Dr. Mark Raney, a clinic physician.
Some people had asked to be put on a list to be called when the vaccine restrictions were lifted, he said.
“We did get a pick-up in folks, especially teachers,” he added.
The Everett Clinic is preparing to administer the vaccine to as many as 3,000 patients today at its Everett and Marysville clinics, said Dr. Yuan-Po Tu, medical director of its walk-in clinics.
At its peak in the last couple of days, the wait time to book an appointment for the vaccine was about 10 minutes, he said.
Tu said he hopes to get as many people vaccinated before Christmas as possible because over the years, interest in flu vaccine has waned after the holidays.
Several physicians said they were happy the restrictions on the vaccine have been dropped. Now they don’t have to explain why children and pregnant women could get the vaccine while seniors couldn’t.
Someone walked into the Sky Valley Family Medicine clinic in Sultan and asked an employee working at the front desk if the vaccine was unavailable to them because employees were saving it for their friends, Raney said.
While many people understood about the vaccine restrictions, others got upset. People reasoned, “this is a government funded project. Why are they doing this?” said Tu, The Everett Clinic physician.
A spot check of pharmacies and clinics showed that there’s no shortage of vaccine.
“We’re ordering lots of extra so that anyone who comes in will be able to get it,” said Dr. Randall Gould, medical director of walk-in clinics at Providence Physician Group. “We’re pretty confident that we’ll have adequate supplies.”
Group Health will offer the vaccine to its patients at its Lynnwood clinic from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Sylliaasen, who places the vaccine orders for all pharmacies and clinics in the county, said so far, supplies are “great” and more is on the way.
“I’ve ordered 25,000 doses … in the last three days,” she said Friday.
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