Update @ 9:00p.m.-- The Marin County Dept of Public Health reportedly just received 4,000 doses of vaccine for flu shots on Thursday according to the Marin IJ. That's still well short of the amount of doses requested, and needed.
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"As of today, no H1N1 flu shots have been delivered to, or distributed in, Marin County."
If you called the swine flu hotline at the Marin County Dept. of Public Health on Thursday, that's what you'd have heard. The recorded message goes on to say that "we anticipate initial delivery at the end of October or early November" but no specific dates are given. It's the same story in other parts of the Bay Area as well.
With the exception of a small distribution of nasal mist vaccine and some pediatric shots, the swine flu vaccine seems to be missing in action, except if you happen to live in San Francisco.
Then you might be in luck.
For the next several days, several clinics in SF will providing the H1N1 flu vaccine to those who fall into a high risk category. The SF Dept. of Public Health lists nine locations where the vaccine will be distributed.
What about Marin?
I called my own physician here in Mill Valley and they told me they had been "inundated" with calls from patients seeking the vaccine, but had "no idea when they were going to receive them." She could only add my name to her ever-growing list.
Calls to the local pharmacies went much the same way, with one major chain telling us they don't think they'll get any H1N1 vaccines at all. She added that they also have ran out of the seasonal flu vaccine--in October. She doesn't expect to get any more of that vaccine either. And local public agencies are canceling previously scheduled vaccine clinics.
There was an early initial batch of swine flu nasal mist vaccine, but as far as we can tell, it was extremely limited in distribution. Dominican University administered the mist on October 27, but only to students and medical personnel who were Kaiser Permanent members.
According to Kaiser's hotline (415.444-4154), they also received a very limited supply of flu shots--at this point, only available for children. There will be a clinic on Saturday, October 31 from 9 a.m. to 12 Noon at KP San Rafael where they'll provide flu shots to children 6 mos. to 18 years of age, and parents of babies under 6 months old.
No word from Kaiser on when they expect additional doses for the general population.
According to this article, the U.S. expects to receive 30 million H1N1 flu vaccine doses from Novartis, one the major produces of the vaccine, by the end of November which was the original target date for the vaccine delivery.
They better hurry up.
The CDC just released figures for those they believe have already been infected with the virus; nearly 6 million!
Meanwhile--and we realize you've heard it ad-nauseum--the best defense against catching the virus is to maintain vigorous hand-washing habits.
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