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Controversy Over Rhee Now to Include Sex, Congress
WUSA9 has it that parents and kids waited hours to get the H1N1 vaccine in Cheverly, MD. Yet the Washington Business Journal reports that 55% of Washington-area adults don't plan to inoculate, nothing that a full "one-third of parents with children living at home do not plan on getting the vaccine this year."
So is there a lack in supply or in demand for H1N1 vaccine? Yesterday, Sommer reported that the D.C. Department of Health is in fact cutting back its free H1N1 vaccine clinics within the District proper. More than 11,000 people have received vaccinations in two weeks, a number number that does not count non-priority populations. People without complicating medical conditions are not eligible yet to receive the vaccine at the free clinics -- although, by anecdotal accounts, many clinics in DC have not been busy, and staff at those clinics have been giving them to all comers.
Demand seems to be up in D.C. So is national supply, according to yesterday's Examiner. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says some 8 million more flu vaccines should be available for next week.
Something is wrong with this distribution scheme. Barring the wingnut contingent that believes that vaccines are part of some harmful conspiracy -- looking at you here, Billy Corgan -- there has to be a reason that many adults, and some adults with children, are reporting that they won't get the H1N1 vaccine. If it's the perception that the clinics will be overcrowded, well, that's certainly true of places, but not at all true of other places. According to friends, the clinics in Bloomingdale and Cardozo have been all but abandoned.
Ideally, vaccination efforts in the D.C. area would not divide along state lines, or even among neighborhoods, but focus instead on where people are. From very anecdotal evidence, doubling down on the CVSs and dialing back the number of schools hosting flu shots would speed up the time spent in line and boost perceptions of the whole process.
UPDATE: This Fairfax flu fair seems like the right idea, working on the "If you build it, they will come" model. The Fairfax County Health Department is prepared to provide 12,000 vaccinations today.
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Barring the wingnut contingent that believes that vaccines are part of some harmful conspiracy
Kriston, I don't think it's just the wingnut contingent. Among people I've talked to who should know better, too many have bought into the ideas that the H1N1 vaccine is undertested, unsafe, Big Pharma, etc. It's a ridiculously strong meme across the political spectrum.
The thing that amazes me is that the vaccine is the same with exception of antigen as the seasonal flu shot. BTW the seasonal flu shot is seasonal because those antigens are reconstructed annually with not much further immunological testing. The H1N1 vaccine actually underwent a phase 3 clinical trial in 5000 people before general release which was really amazing given the time constraints.
Whether of not there's a shortage I'm glad to see that
Dcist isn't letting the dipshit crankslike billy corgan (my childhood musical hero) off the hook. Kudos.
We and the kids got vaccinated at Cardozo today. There were hundreds of DC people there. We got there at 8:30, were out by 10, and had a nice brunch after.
Easy peasy, though the kids need to go back in a couple of weeks to get their other half dose.
wow, how far the mighty have fallen. i've known corgan was a crank for quite a few years now, but this really takes the cake.
and, kriston, where the hell was there a flu-shot clinic in bloomingdale? there's nowhere big enough in the neighborhood to host something like that. are you talking about the one at mckinley tech? because that's way over there in the middle of eckington...