Flu vaccine supply gets shot in the arm
From Mary Snow
CNN
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two months after a flu vaccine shortage prompted rations and long lines, the U.S. government is expanding its stockpile.
"We have access to 1.2 million doses of vaccine," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced Tuesday.
That raises the total to some 62 million doses.
The supplier is Glaxo SmithKline, which has nearly 3 million more of its Fluarix shots available.
"The CDC will distribute the new doses to communities they deem to be most in need," Thompson said.
Those with priority include the elderly, pregnant women and people with chronic illnesses.
The vaccine is approved in about 30 countries, but not in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration has given it investigational status and insists it's safe.
"This vaccine we're bringing is investigational not because we have real questions about it, but because the company elected not to enter the U.S. market and so did not apply for approval," explained acting FDA Commissioner Lestor Crawford.
For patients, that means having to sign a consent form that's a bit different from other waivers.
"The purpose of a consent is basically to protect the doctor or protect the company that supplied the vaccine. And so that the patient really shouldn't be able to say 'please give me this vaccine' then turn around then sue the person that gives it to them. I think that's a wise precaution for the doctor to have in place," says Dr. Mark Siegel, an assistant professor of medicine at New York University.
Doctors like Siegel have been rationing flu vaccines since October, when roughly half of the nation's supply was wiped out.
That's because one of two suppliers -- Chiron -- had to halt production because of contamination problems at a British plant.
Health officials have been trying to fill the void ever since.
But even with the new vaccines added, the government is still about 35 million shots short of what it was aiming to provide this year.
