Statewide Flu Vaccination Efforts Begin This Week
Statewide flu immunization efforts begin this week, "amid concerns" that the vaccine will "be in short supply" again this year, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The shots will be delivered with a "special emphasis" on the elderly and chronically ill. The CDC currently predicts that 56% of the nation's 79 million doses will be shipped by the end of October, with an additional 31% coming by the end of November and the remainder set to arrive in December. The state Department of Health Services has ordered from manufacturer Aventis Pasteur 718,000 doses of the flu vaccine, which will be distributed through county health departments and nursing homes. The Chronicle reports that public health officials are "particularly eager" to deliver flu shots to African Americans this year, following a recent Journal of the American Medical Association study that found that 68% of white Medicare beneficiaries were immunized against influenza, compared with 41% of African-American Medicare beneficiaries (Russell, San Francisco Chronicle, 10/1).
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