That’s pretty much what my medical clinic has already said. Except that they don’t even have enough for everyone in the Initial Target Group. Only the children under age 5 are getting it. Not pregnant women, such as my wife.
I’m screwed. I’m on rheumatoid arthritis immunosuppressant drugs. I’m 65. I’m outside the target group, because of my age, even though I’m at probably the highest risk of dying if I get it.
“Need answer fast.” 
Oh, I understand. But that would require someone to stand up and actually be the face of “no you can’t have the vaccine because someone needs it more than you” - and the likelihood of that happening is about as high as me having a place to put that pony.
How to prioritize within that group is a tough one. In our large multi-specialty group we pediatricians requested that the pregnant women go first, as we see them as the highest risk, and the most bang for the buck, and then our highest risk kids next (e.g. kids with neurodevelopmental disorders esp those who also have lung issues, kids 6-23 months, kids with bad asthma … and then moving into the others in that higher priority group. A healthy 4 year old before a pregnant woman? I don’t get that.
In my office shelli that’s what we are saying. We have an extremely limited supply and we are giving to those who are the greatest risk first. And telling people that. As a larger group we are going to try to implement a system with transparency and offer both vaccinations to those most likely to benefit the most in our offices and at group-wide clinics at nights and week-ends (we are a large group) but we have to work out the fine details of how to execute that … and get some supply!!
samclem, you really are not at highest risk. Being over 60, RA and immunosuppressives or not, you are unlikely to catch the bug. Period. The unvaccinated pregant woman and her baby-to-be, my kid with bronchopulmonary dysplasia … now their screwed if we don’t get our supply soon.
Just by way of comparison with a ‘socialized’ health service, just under 25% of the UK population are in the first priority group and they were notified of their option to have the vaccination this past week.
All resources are in place but the scale of it means it could take two months to get to the entire population - though this is though unlikely as many will decline.
There have been 100 related deaths so far.
I just meant that if I catch it, then I’m probably in trouble.
In my neck of the woods, where the flu hit very early, we are already Seinfelding it up on who is ‘spongeworthy’.
Health care workers were up in arms about being mandated to take the vaccine. There were protests and everything. This came as a big relief to our Governor, who told them Fine! Don’t get it if you don’t want it! Thereby saving a few vaccines from the ungrateful to those who want to be protected.
Another data point: My husband, who does housing work for people with AIDS, was told that he and all his co-workers must get the vaccine. They are all still waiting for some to become available. I don’t know if one can blame Sebelius for there not being enough to go around. Or for health care workers not following the guidelines.
Oh yeah that’s likely true.
DSeid, I feel ya. I’m asthmatic, and I can’t find any damn vaccine anywhere. My doctor’s office has been so besieged with phone calls that they have actually changed the initial message callers get to one that says essentially “no, we don’t have any H1N1 vaccine, and we don’t know when we will have any. When we have news, we will change this message.” The City of Chicago offered woefully inadequate clinics, but only for uninsured, high-risk Chicago residents. I’m not a Chicago resident, but even if I were , I am insured, but I haven’t been able to locate vaccine for any amount of money, so what does insurance have to do with it?
A friend of mine who is an asthmatic labor and delivery nurse at Evanston Hospital says she has no way to get vaccinated, either - when I last spoke to her, the hospital had no vaccine.
There must be a better way of triaging.
(Just out of curiosity, does the severity of a person’s asthma correlate with the likelihood of flu complications? Because mine is actually pretty mild; I can go months untreated, and without any symptoms. I do have a propensity to having colds turn into bronchitis, though.)
I figure I’m pretty much screwed, 42 asthmatic and on immunosupressents. I keep hoping a dose will come available. I do know I am way down on the list though.
Locally, they have tightened up the list of people that will be allowed to get the vaccine.
Apparently, they still don’t have the vaccine for 6-36 month infants.
There is definitely an amount of unfortunate ignorance on the part of the general public. At the clinic I went to, nobody was turned away (although they did make a point of pulling visibly pregnant women and families with tiny infants out of line first) and there were several apparently healthy young adults who were standing in line defiantly and loudly proclaiming that their lives were “just as important as the rest of you!” A doctor who was walking the line answering questions about the vaccine attempted to explain to them that the prioritizing wasn’t about ranking importance of lives but they just didn’t get it.