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medpundit |
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Thursday, October 07, 2004At least 30 people crowded the Discount Drug Mart store in Minerva half an hour before a flu shot clinic started Wednesday. The customers were seeking vaccines while they could get them one day after public health officials announced this year's supply will be roughly half of what was expected. ....Discount Drug Mart has enough doses to continue its scheduled clinics, though doses are limited to high-risk patients, said Tom Nameth, director of pharmacy operations. ``I would say for the next week to 10 days, the clinics that are already scheduled are going to happen,'' he said. After that, he said, the availability could start to be limited. ``The next step could be that they're going to limit the numbers at each clinic,'' he said. But at least one drugstore chain is behaving responsibly: The supply shortage forced at least one national drugstore chain to cancel its scheduled flu shot clinics. In a statement posted Wednesday on its Web site, CVS announced it is suspending all its stores' flu clinics while it evaluates how to distribute the doses. The Ohio Department of Health ordered their vaccines from Aventis, so they plan to go ahead as scheduled with their vaccine clinics. Other states weren't so lucky. Still other health departments are giving vaccines to all takers, regardless of risk. (Tough luck to the elderly of South Bend, Indiana) Who would have thought that a drugstore chain was capable of acting more ethically than a health department? Too bad the CDC doesn't have the power to enforce restrictions in crisis situations such as this. posted by Sydney on 10/07/2004 09:26:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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