Officials Find 2.6M Doses of Flu Vaccine
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WASHINGTON – Federal health officials said yesterday that 2.6 million additional doses of flu vaccine will be available in January, far fewer than the 48 million lost to contamination at a British manufacturing plant. The shipment also arrives after the date the government recommends for vulnerable Americans to have had their shots.
That makes it unclear how helpful the extra vaccine doses will be. Most flu seasons peak in January or later, and it takes two weeks for people to develop immunity after being vaccinated. People should be vaccinated in October or November, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We’re waging a comprehensive and aggressive response,” Tommy Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Services, told a news conference. “We have good reason to be optimistic in our ability to deal with the flu season and protect the most vulnerable from its harsh effects.”
He said there was enough antiviral medicine available to treat 40 million people – shortening illness in people sick with the flu and preventing illness in healthy people.
Between vaccines and antiviral drugs, enough medicine will be available to treat 100 million people this flu season, he said. Federal authorities have asked that healthy adults refrain from getting vaccinated to leave enough for those at greatest risk: the very young, the very old and people with chronic illnesses.
Mr. Thompson aggressively defended the administration’s response to the shortage in the wake of criticism from Senator Kerry, President Bush’s Democratic challenger, who has raised the issue on the campaign trail.
“No president or administration has invested more in the flu than this one,” Mr. Thompson said. He pointed to a fiscal year 2005 proposal for $283.1 million, compared with $39.3 million in flu related investments in 2001.
Mr. Kerry has said the administration failed to heed warnings about a potential shortage. “If you can’t get flu vaccines to Americans, how are you going to protect them against bioterrorism? If you can’t get flu vaccines to Americans, what kind of health care program are you running?” Mr. Kerry said.
In Florida, Mr. Bush sought to ease Americans’ concerns about the shortage, saying, “I want to assure them that our government is doing everything possible to help older Americans and children get their shots despite the major manufacturing defect that caused this problem,” he said.
Chiron Corp. was expected to provide the United States with 46 million to 48 million doses of flu vaccine, nearly half the supply the U.S. government had expected. But British regulators closed its Liverpool facility because of contamination.