Sand Mountain Reporter

The 1,000 doses of the H1N1 vaccine that Marshall County received ran out last Friday morning and now the wait for more begins again.

The health department started administering the vaccines last Wednesday, and the large rush of people they expected never showed up, according to Cathy Hughes, the clinic supervisor.

“Thursday was busier than Wednesday and then Friday morning it was probably the most, as far as people coming early,” Hughes said. “We never did have to direct traffic or any of those kind of things, but it was busier as the week went on.”

Hughes said Marshall County should get more of the vaccine as soon as the manufacturers catch up to the demand.

The Associated Press has reported a senior adviser to President Barack Obama said the government would catch up to the demand for swine flu vaccine within a week.

According to Obama adviser David Axelrod, manufacturers of the vaccine told the administration they would have 40 million doses available by the end of October, but the manufacturers were only able to supply 28 million doses.

On Friday morning, some people who showed up for the shot could not get one because the supply ran out.

“There were people here when we ran out,” Hughes said. “It wasn’t a huge line but we did have people here.”

Overall, the process of getting people processed and dosed went “smoothly,” according to Hughes.

“As far as getting people in and out, we did that pretty quickly, I think,” Hughes said.

Also according to the AP, there are independent health advisers set up to monitor the safety of the swine flu vaccine.

Nobody expects any problems with the vaccine because it is made the same way the regular flu vaccine is made.

“Given the rapidity with which this particular vaccine was rolled out, there seems to be an extra-special obligation to make sure things remain as uncomplicated as they have in the past,” Dr. Marie McCormick of the Harvard School of Public Health, who chairs the working group, told the AP.

McCormick’s group heard safety data from studies of the swine flu vaccine compiled from 10,000 cases on Monday.

According to an AP summary of the data, there have not been any serious side effects reported.

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Serving Albertville and the Sand Mountain region

Publisher: Ben Shurett

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Albertville, Alabama 35950

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