I want my flu shot!
That’s what scared seniors and anxious moms are barking to their doctors after showing up for influenza vaccinations only to learn the shipments hadn’t arrived.
“Three weeks late – this is the third year in a row of delays,” said Michael Freedman, director of geriatrics at the NYU Medical Center. “I just got my batch on Thursday . . . Patients started coming in September.”
When he switched from the drug supplier Caligor to Novartis, he got the doses in about a week, he said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics also warned of delays in shipments of Flu Zone, manufactured by Sanofi pasteur, for infants.
“Plenty will be available, but pediatricians will receive most of it in November and December,” the academy said.
The state Health Department, meanwhile, had to throw out 16,000 doses that arrived frozen and could not be used.
Officials say there’s no cause to panic.
“Not all areas doctors have gotten the vaccine yet, but they will soon,” a city Health Department spokesman said.
While flu season is not expected until February, infants’ first-time vaccinations require two injections four weeks apart, potentially making any delay more crucial.
But the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention insist things are going smoothly, with a record 115 million doses available and about 75 million already distributed.
And, the CDC’s Jeanne Santoli said, shipment is phased in, since “it isn’t possible to complete the production-and-distribution process prior to the vaccination season.”
Emily Baccash, a Brooklyn geriatric specialist, has been giving flu shots for four weeks.
And Herbert Lazarus, an NYU pediatrician, got 3,000 doses last week.
“It looks promising, compared to the last couple of years,” he said.
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Needle war
Doses of flu vaccine distributed through October
2006 – 75 million
2005 – 60 million
Total doses for season
2006 – 115 million
2005 – 100 million