WNY continues to wait for swine flu vaccine
Yet New York City seems to have plenty
New York City has enough swine flu vaccine to hold 29 public clinics throughout its five boroughs, in addition to elementary vaccination clinics already held. Even major Wall Street corporations are getting some vaccine for their high-risk employees.
But in Western New York, frustrated physicians and Health Department officials are still waiting, and waiting, to get more than a trickle of what they need.
“To be honest with you, I don’t begrudge [New York City] having it,” said Dr. Steven Lana, who runs Delaware Pediatric Associates in Buffalo. “I just don’t understand why everyone isn’t getting it . . . It sure makes us all feel like second-class citizens, doesn’t it?”
He added, “Maybe the National Guard needs to start loading up their trucks. I mean, we’ve got to do something.”
The distribution of any vaccine is complicated, and the distribution of the H1N1 vaccine is more complicated than most. State Health Department officials say the vaccine is being distributed fairly and proportionally, according to population, but local officials are demanding more transparency.
In New York City, large businesses with on-site medical staff — like Goldman Sachs — have been allowed to ask for the H1N1 vaccine along with other doctors as long as they agree to vaccinate only high-risk employees like pregnant women and those with chronic illnesses, said Jessica Scaperotti, a spokeswoman for New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Then this week, city health officials announced details of a five-week effort to provide free H1N1 vaccine to middle and high school students in all five boroughs. Weekend vaccination centers, held in varying locations in each borough during November and December, are designed to ensure that all school-age New Yorkers have a chance to be inoculated.
Nothing on that scale is happening here.
As of last week, Erie County health providers had ordered 397,951 doses of the H1N1 vaccine and received 61,100 doses, or 15 percent of what they need, said Dr. Anthony Billittier IV, county health commissioner.
While county health officials know how much vaccine their own community is getting, Billittier said, they don’t have comparative data for other counties and therefore have no way of knowing whether they’re receiving equal treatment.
“My point is that this information needs to be made available to the public,” he said. “Full disclosure will help eliminate this issue because there’s plenty of other issues to deal with.”
He’s not the only one who wants better answers in a region where three children and three adults have already died because of health complications involving the swine flu.
Will Keresztes, associate superintendent of the Buffalo Public Schools, wrote a letter to the state health commissioner Thursday to say the schools’ immunization program “is being severely compromised” by the lack of H1N1 vaccine.
“We face the unacceptable prospect that thousands of schoolchildren in Buffalo will be exposed to the virus and many will become sick before even minimal supply levels are made available to us,” Keresztes said. “How could Buffalo, which contains the second-largest school district in New York State, not have been designated by your office to receive a proportional share of vaccine?”
Two Buffalo students died of H1N1-related illnesses in June, and the school system has seen “recent spikes in absenteeism primarily due to flulike illness, Keresztes said.
“Please clarify for us the approach established by your department to effectively distribute limited vaccine doses,” he added. “This will help our school community understand why we continue to be without sufficient access to H1N1 vaccinations.”
Claire Pospisil, spokeswoman for the state Health Department, said the swine flu vaccine is still in short supply and being distributed on a per-capita basis.
Initially, she said, the department distributed the vaccine primarily to hospitals, local health departments and federally qualified health centers. As the vaccine supply has become more available, the department has expanded its distribution to other health care providers.
For the entire state, excluding New York City, 7 million doses have been requested, and 1 million doses have been distributed, she said.
Pospisil also said the New York City Health Department — which is responsible for receiving and redistributing the vaccine through the five city boroughs — is getting the same population-based portion of its vaccine as the rest of the state is.
“There is no disparity that I’m aware of,” she said.
Distributing vaccines to the specific providers who want them depends on the type and size of the health care provider, the population they serve, the type of vaccine requested, and what vaccines the state Health Department has on hand, she said.
She and Billittier pointed out that there are seven different forms of the swine flu vaccine made by different manufacturers and targeting different populations. Some vaccine types are more available than others.
For instance, the Erie County Health Department requested 25,000 doses of the single-shot, thimerosol-free vaccine but has received only 100 because it requested a vaccine type in particularly high demand and short supply.
Health and school officials say the ongoing shortage of available vaccine highlights a serious breakdown in national health care delivery that could be catastrophic if a more serious viral pandemic were to strike.
“I think this has to be a wake-up call,” said Lana said.
Many who run doctors’ offices and schools say they stand ready to disseminate the vaccine and have been ready for some time. But they’re forced to remain idle while the children they serve fall ill.
In the city schools, H1N1 vaccination plans for as many as 50,000 Buffalo students — including those who attend charter, private and religious schools — have been in place since late September but were put on hold due to the lack of vaccine, Keresztes said.
Instead, the Buffalo schools are offering free seasonal flu shots to all city children over the age of six months from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on both Nov. 14 and Dec. 12. Vaccinations will be available both days at Olmsted School at Kensington, 319 Suffolk St., and at Southside Elementary School, 430 Southside Parkway.
Billittier said he intends to work with schools to offer these public H1N1 vaccination clinics, but only after every health provider in Erie County who wants the vaccine has gotten all they need.
The vaccine is still only available to certain high-risk groups, with the highest risk being those 6 months to 24 years old, pregnant women and those who take care of infants under 6 months of age, the commissioner said.
He recommends that those parents and caregivers continue to check with their doctors regarding vaccine availability.
“We’re giving the perception that nobody is getting shots here, and that’s not true,” he said. “People are getting shots. Not a lot of people, but people are getting shots.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
stan@buffnews.com and psimon@buffnews.com
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