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Sunday, January 23, 2005States have begun dropping their restrictions on flu shots now that falling demand has led to surpluses, and some health officials want the federal government to take similar action. The federal government last month eased its restrictions, imposed when production problems in October cut the flu vaccine supply in half, and allowed shots for adults age 50 and older. Since then, at least 17 states have lifted all previous restrictions, according to the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. The states previously had reserved the vaccine for older adults, infants and people with chronic medical conditions. Some health officials say the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should recommend that restrictions be lifted nationally. An article in our local newspaper said that the health department now has about 400 doses of flu vaccine on hand, but just three weeks ago, they still had an answering machine message saying they had none. Evidently, the supply didn't come available until this month, when it's really not all that worthwhile. In this part of the world, flu season usually peaks around January or February. The vaccine works best if given a month or two before flu season. It's too bad the vaccine supply wasn't made available in November or December. The distribution plan moved at a snail's pace, or at least at a bureaucracy's pace. posted by Sydney on 1/23/2005 10:21:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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