There's lots to report from the past two days of vaccine and Tamiflu searching. Here goes:
1. D.C. had it's first clinic run out of the injectable vaccine at Wilson High School tonight. There's no word on the D.C. Swine Flu page about availability at the other clinics. Meanwhile, at Hardy Middle School, parents reported 3-hour waits, but still had praise for D.C.
2. Montgomery County is holding a by-appointment only injectable H1N1 thimerosal-free vaccine clinic on Wednesday, Nov. 4, for pregnant women ONLY. To make an appointment, call 240-777-4040 on Monday or Tuesday between 3 and 5 p.m. The county reports that it is currently out of all other vaccines right now.
3. All reports from yesterday's Montgomery County H1N1 vaccine clinics at area high schools was that they were a disaster. Several parents reported to me that the county started giving out the vaccine at 3:30 and was completely wiped out by 4:15. And several folks reported that they couldn't even get their cars close to Rockville High School and simply turned around and left.
4. If you're one of the unlucky ones with Swine Flu running through your house, your probably stressful hunt for Tamiflu hasn't gone unnoticed. The Washington Post took notice today of the shortage of the liquid form of the medicine, which, of course, is what all young kids need. Here's the important tidbit for those of you on the hunt: Call Kensington Pharmacy, where the independent pharmacists are experts at compounding.
An aside: Barring a continued fever in a certain 5-year-old, I'll finally publish the Halloween trick-or-treating info I promised earlier this week.
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I am the public information officer at Montgomery County Health and Human Services and want to make sure your readers know that while we said in all of our press materials and on our website that no one was allowed entry onto school property until 3:30, that did not stop individuals from lining up on public property before that. Police could not keep them from doing that and could also not keep those high school parents needing to pick up their kids from coming on to school property.
ReplyDeleteThe lines (I was at Northwood HS)were moved up to the front door by police at 3:30 and the parking lot was opened then too.
It is true that all 1000 tickets were distributed quickly and I'm sorry about that. Public health folks are as frustrated as the public is with trying to get vaccinated. Our job is disease prevention and we want everyone vaccinated but the supply of vaccine has been woefully short of the demand. There is no relationship between the quantity ordered and the quantity delivered and there is also no way to know when we will have vaccine delivery.
While we can urge people only in the target groups to come and urge people to wait until a resonable time to show up in line, we don't have control over everyone's personal behavior and we also can't turn people away, even those from outside Montgomery County. This is a federal vaccine program.
I am sorry this has been such a frustrating experience for everyone and I urge everyone to keep updated on our vaccine availabity by going to the website at www.montgomerycountymd.gov/h1n1flu or call the Flu Information Line at 240-777-4200. I am updating the website as quickly as possible when we get new information and I will continue to do so.
Mary Anderson