Last year’s scramble for flu vaccine won’t be repeated this season, health officials said Friday, as flu shot clinics get under way this coming week.
“There’s going to be ample vaccine this year,” said Dr. Roger Baxter, director of Kaiser Permanente’s influenza surveillance program in Northern California.
Three manufacturers are supplying flu shots for the U.S. market. Sanofi Pasteur, formerly known as Aventis Pasteur, is producing up to 60 million doses, and GlaxoSmithKline is producing 8 million doses.
Emeryville-based Chiron expects to produce 18 to 26 million doses after passing Food and Drug Administration inspections on Aug. 31.
Last year, Chiron failed to produce any vaccine due to contamination problems at its Liverpool, England facility — causing a national shortage.
MedImmune Vaccines will produce about 3 million doses of FluMist, a nasal spray vaccine that is recommended only for healthy people age 5 to 49 years who are not pregnant.
The two-tiered inoculation system was devised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in response to last year’s flu vaccine fiasco.
Thousands of sick and elderly waited in long lines across the country for flu shots last October after Chiron announced that it would not produce half the nation’s expected supply. Later in the flu season — which turned out to be quite mild — unused vaccine sat on shelves.
This year, the state of California has ordered 751,000 doses of vaccine — half from Sanofi Pasteur and half from Chiron — which it is distributing to local health departments for flu clinics for low income residents.
The state has received all its Sanofi Pasteur order and is awaiting the Chiron doses, said a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health Services.
Kaiser Permanente Northern California ordered 700,000 doses from Sanofi Pasteur. Kaiser’s flu clinics will start on Oct. 15 and are for Kaiser members only.
Pharmacy retailers will begin flu shot clinics as early as next week.
Walgreens will offer flu shots starting Monday at all its 4,500 locations nationwide to high-priority groups. The cost is $25.
Sutter Health Visiting Nurses Association and Hospice will begin flu shot clinics next week as well. The group ordered
60,000 doses for clinics in 12 Northern California counties, and has received half of its expected supply, said spokeswoman Gerri Ginsberg.
In Union City, flu shots will be available at the Ralph and Mary Ruggieri Senior Center, 33997 Alvarado-Niles Road, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Oct. 17. People under age 62 will pay $20. Those 62 and over will pay $5 if Sutter VNA gets additional vaccine from the county; otherwise, the shots will cost $20.
The Alameda County Health Department has received less than one- quarter of its expected supply of about 24,000 doses from the state and has not yet scheduled flu shot clinics, said department spokeswoman Sherri Willis.
It’s still unclear how severe the flu season will be. All indications point to a relatively mild one, Baxter said.
And emerging flu strains around the world are matching up with the vaccines, Baxter said.
Contact Rebecca Vesely at rvesely@angnewspapers.com.
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