Shot Shortage Avoidable

A reasonable reaction to the news that flu vaccine will be in short supply this winter is to rush to the doctor’s office in search of a shot before they are gone. This is unnecessary and will put people who really need the vaccine at risk.

The federal government announced earlier this week that flu shots should be rationed because a major vaccine supplier had been shut down by British authorities. Vaccine made by Chiron Corp. in Liverpool, England, was found to be contaminated and the company’s license was suspended on Tuesday. That means 46 million of the 48 million doses ordered by the United States will not arrive. The rest of the U.S. supply comes from Aventis Pasteur in France, which has begun shipping 54 million doses to the United States.

An estimated 180 million people are considered at high risk for complications from the flu. But typically no more than 87 million Americans seek out the immunizations. Government officials are looking for ways to boost the nation’s supply, including diluting the existing vaccine and using the Aventis vaccine, which is typically used for young children, for high-risk adults.

The Maine Bureau of Health ordered 150,000 doses of flu vaccine to be distributed to low-income, high-risk residents. The majority of those doses – 123,000 – were to come from Chiron because the Centers for Disease Control assigned Maine’s order to the company. The remaining doses are from Aventis. The bureau is currently surveying private medical practices to find out how many doses they ordered and from which company.

In light of the shortage, the advice from the health bureau is simple: If you are in a high risk group – under 2, over 65, live in a nursing home, work in a child-care facility, have a chronic health condition or are pregnant – call your health-care provider to get vaccinated or have your name put on a list for upcoming vaccinations. Everyone else should practice what the bureau calls “good respiratory etiquette.” This means sneezing into your sleeve or a tissue (and throwing it away), washing your hands frequently and staying home from work or school if you are sick.

While this may help this winter, longer-term issues need to be addressed. Federal health officials should reconsider the practice of ordering necessary vaccines from foreign countries, where U.S. regulators have little direct oversight. In August, Chiron discovered that 4 million vaccine doses had been contaminated with a disease causing bacteria. In September, officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the rest of the supply was fine. The move by British regulators took U.S. officials by surprise.

Manufacturing a flu vaccine is complicated because a new variation must be made every year to combat the strain of the illness that is expected to be the most prevalent. Last year, researchers picked the wrong strain, but vaccines were believed to be partially successful in warding off what turned out to be the dominant strain. In addition, the vaccine is grown in chicken eggs and takes months to develop so production cannot be quickly increased.

Still, the government could do a better job of encouraging vaccine production in America. It should also order more doses so that enough is available when things go wrong.