By Stephanie Steinberg, Daily Staff Reporter
Published September 7, 2009
Although the H1N1 vaccine is not available yet, University and public health officials estimate it will be distributed to the public in late October or early November.
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But as the threat of a swine flu pandemic looms, a major question remains for University officials preparing for its arrival: how many students will want to be vaccinated?
Dr. Robert Winfield, the University's chief medical officer, said the University ordered approximately 25,000 doses of the H1N1 vaccine. While more than 40,000 students attend the University, Winfield said he doesn’t expect more than half of the students will want to be vaccinated.
“We don’t anticipate everybody will want to get the vaccine,” he said, adding that only about 10 percent of University students get vaccinated for the seasonal flu.
The regular, seasonal influenza vaccine — which doesn’t prevent people from contracting H1N1 — will be available to students in late September.
Winfield said the University will practice a mass vaccination with the seasonal flu shot as a way to prepare for the H1N1 vaccine.
Students and faculty from the Schools of Public Health, Nursing and Dentistry and College of Pharmacy will help with vaccinations in the University Health Service’s Allergy, Immunization and Travel Health Clinic for $42. The Dean of Students Office will also offer seasonal flu vaccinations for a discounted price of $15 at Palmer Commons on Sept. 30.
Because University students were labeled as one of five priority groups for the H1N1 vaccine in late July, officials at colleges around the country are scrambling to make last-minute preparations.
When all people younger than age 24 became a priority group for the vaccine, Dr. Robert Ernst, the medical director of UHS, said the decision considerably changed the University’s planning.
“Suddenly our whole campus became a priority group,” Ernst said. “That change kind of pushed back our plans.”
UHS originally made arrangements to vaccinate priority groups like pregnant women and health care providers this fall, thinking that students would not be eligible to receive immunization until the spring.
“When the priority groups changed to include the college students, we’ve had to accelerate our plans to come up with strategies that would allow for mass vaccination for the whole campus,” Ernst said.
According to Winfield, the Centers for Disease Control determined the priority groups based on two factors: who gets infected and who is at risk of death.
Currently, pregnant women are the first on the list to get vaccinated, followed by caregivers of children younger than six months, health care providers and emergency personnel, individuals ages six months to 24, and individuals ages 25 to 64 who have high risk factors.
Winfield said he expects the groups to change due to the amount of H1N1 vaccine on hand.
“What we think will happen is that there won’t be enough vaccine, and they will have to narrow those guidelines,” he said.
Winfield cited the CDC had dropped its original estimate of 160 million doses of the vaccine being available by Oct. 15. That figure has since been reduced to 45 million, according to The Associated Press. The reduction appears to be a delay rather than a shortage though, as 20 million more doses are expected to be shipped out every week after that Oct.
