|
The Washington Post reports that despite the federal government's campaign to protect the nation against the swine flu pandemic, not everyone who wants the vaccine has been able to get it.
Only a fraction of the tens of millions of doses of vaccine that authorities predicted would be available have actually arrived in states, cities and towns across the country. Many health departments and doctors are being flooded with calls from worried patients.
Federal officials defended the program and blamed the lag on the need to ensure the vaccine's safety and effectiveness and unexpected problems such as the virus growing unusually slowly and snags at factories filling vials with vaccine, accoring to The Post.
Officials originally predicted that 120 million doses would be ready by now, then downgraded that to 40 million and last week acknowledged that perhaps only 30 million would be available by the end of the month. Officials now say they expect 50 million doses by the middle of next month and 150 million in December. Only about 15 million doses have been made available.
|