Just a quick update on the info I got from the pediatrician when she called back on Friday evening.
- Only 10% of the seasonal flu vaccine needed for 2009 was produced because the manufacturers switched to producing H1N1. She doesn't know if they will be able to produce any more.
- Only once in the last five years have manufacturers produced enough of the seasonal flu vaccine to enable healthcare providers to vaccinate all kids 2x, as recommended.
- Two shots is best but one shot is better than nothing. 90% of my pediatrician's patients won't even get the first shot and so I should consider Daisy "lucky". (WTF?)
- As for H1N1, Mercy Med Group is on the waiting list for the vaccine and calls the manufacturers weekly to determine availability. (I'd like them to change that to daily, but that's just me. Bug the crap out of them until they roll-over and send the shipment my way!)
- Even the scheduled county H1N1 vaccination clinics may need to be pushed-back and restrictions made even tighter re: who gets it, because the vaccine is not getting shipped fast enough.
Interestingly, our pediatrician decided to try and turn our conversation into a "down with government involvement in my health-care" conversation, to which I informed her that I come from England where everything is provided by the government and that everyone I know in England seems to have no problem getting vaccinated thankyouverymuch.
As far as I can tell, the six major manufacturers of the flu vaccine are private entities, so, it may actually follow that more government involvement might have been necessary, since the private sector seems to have failed to meet demand in four of the last five years.
The H1N1 issue, however, remains a mystery re: when we, the lowly public, will get it. The CDC website shows 2,953,000 doses have already been shipped to California, most of which has been given to healthcare workers and, coinkidentally, to Kaiser Permanente patients. (Funny how KP is the primary provider for state workers. Hmmm...) Anyway, the Sac County public clinic remains unchanged since 11/6, despite the fact that I'm hearing rumblings that these dates may need to be pushed-out. I'm sure standing in line for these clinics is going to be "fun" also. As for when our actual health-care providers will get the vaccine. Who knows?
Meanwhile, we can all sleep safely tonight knowing that the folks on Wall Street are well protected.
3 comments:
So is the basic argument that if there's a shortage, it's the government fault, no matter what? I don't get it.
the whole situation is sad. nobody can get anything right in this state, what make you think the distribution of vaccine would be any different. fortunately for us, we're with kaiser and katie got her first shot with no problemo. she's due for her second dose the week of thanksgiving. hopefully, there won't be any challengings then... hope you guys get better luck... i don't understand why non-members can't go to kaiser when the vaccine is FREE.
e- I think so, yes. Everyone's pointing fingers and nobody is taking accountability. People are afraid that the vaccine didn't get enough testing, but, at the same time, complaining that it took too long to be made.
Linh - yes, I have a BIG PROBLEM with the whole KP situation. It's wrong that one particular med group should have preference over others and it smacks of some kind of internal corruption at the state level, given that state workers have KP insurance. The vaccine should be evenly allocated at the local level based upon number of subscribers. KP probably should get more than other groups because of this but not be the ONLY one to get the vaccine here.
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