Written by Blake Mathews
So far this flu season, Harding students have been victims of a two-pronged viral attack. Both the regular seasonal flu and the H1N1 virus have been spreading across campus, and Harding’s Student Health Services has ordered vaccines for both flu strains.
The seasonal flu vaccine was supposed to arrive last weekend. No one can say when the H1N1 vaccine will appear.
Harding’s problem is being seen all over the U.S. as the pharmaceutical companies tasked with creating the vaccines fall further and further behind schedule.
According to the Associated Press, the federal government had initially predicted that 120 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine would be ready by mid-October. In reality, only about 13 million doses are currently available. Government health officials have blamed the shortfall on the “chicken-egg method” most manufacturers use, which involves growing the vaccine inside chicken eggs. The process uses 50-year-old technology and can take a long time.
The shortages are forcing states to limit vaccine shipments to some areas. Though White County is one of the largest counties in Arkansas, its health department said Wednesday that it had neither of the flu vaccines in stock.
Lynn McCarty, director of Student Health Services, said she had ordered 300 doses of seasonal flu vaccine months ago. The order is smaller than usual because the clinic had bought too many doses two years in a row. The clinic’s budget pays for the vaccines, and McCarty said she was trying to avoid buying vaccines that she would have to give away. After a certain amount of time, McCarty donates the leftover doses to organizations like River City Ministries in North Little Rock.
If 300 doses seem insufficient for a campus even Harding’s size, McCarty said she anticipated more people would be interested in the H1N1 vaccine, which the university has ordered 1,000 doses of. The vaccine manufacturers had also anticipated this, she said, and had focused more of their resources on producing H1N1 vaccines than seasonal flu.
The seasonal flu vaccine will be given on an individual basis at the clinic. McCarty said she was still working on the logistics of distributing the H1N1 vaccine, but it would have to be done as a mass immunization.
“It takes a while to give a thousand shots,” McCarty said.
Each vaccine will cost $15, but the White County Health Department has scheduled a mass immunization for seasonal flu on Oct. 29. On that day only, the county will be giving vaccinations for free. However, the date is tentative until the county receives the vaccines.
McCarty said that Harding students could go to the mass immunization, but she warned of long lines and short tempers in the face of a vaccine shortage.
“People in a line can get pretty testy if they feel like someone’s going to get their shot,” she said.
The vaccines are administered in two ways: inhalation through a nasal spray and injection through a needle. Harding will only offer the injections because, as they contain a killed virus, they are safer for a greater number of people. The sprays use a live virus and are not recommended for pregnant women, very young children or people with chronic health problems.
Local distributors had told McCarty that her order of seasonal flu vaccines should be in by Nov. 1. When they do arrive, she said she would immediately send out e-mails, start printing off vaccine information forms and set up a chapel announcement. McCarty said she believed her order “should be coming in any time.”
As for the H1N1 vaccine, White County is hoping to have its mass immunization on Nov. 10. McCarty said she did not know when Harding would start giving out its H1N1 shots, largely because the distributor had not given her a timetable for delivery.
“They won’t tell us anything, because I keep asking,” she said. “It’s frustrating. You kind of feel like your hands are tied.”
