<p>We're all concerned about the health of our kids (and ourselves). My PARENTS can't get the shot yet, and they're age 89 and 85. Talk about an incompetent health system!</p>
<p>Flu Mist is a live attenuated virus--like the oral polio vaccine. It is not recommended for broad categories of people, including those with asthma. (The questionnaire before you get the vaccine has 25 items that rule you out. Including being age 50 or over.)</p>
<p>I suffered only some mild side effects from it--was tired for a few days. Might just have been not getting enough sleep, too.</p>
<p>"Including being age 50 or over."</p>
<p>I didn't think of 50 as so old as to warrant being cautioned against particular drugs....isn't it the new 40? ;)</p>
<p>Mackinaw, my 84 year old mother hasn't been able to get a shot either. I am hoping that once my GP is done with her patients that I can sweet talk her into vaccinating my out-of-town Mom. </p>
<p>This really was a situation where the existing supply should have been redistributed as soon as the gov't was aware of the shortage. The company that comes to my husband's office annually to give flu shots came through as usual and vaccinated indiscriminately, high risk or not.</p>
<p>Elleneast:</p>
<p>Interestingly, in less stringent times, being over 50 put you in the high-risk category for flu shots! :)</p>
<p>The skilled nursing facility where my mother lives has no flu vaccine this year. My mother is 93. This is the kind of situation in which it is apparent -- as if it weren't before -- that we have no health care "system." Of course, whatever vaccine there is should have been redistributed and allocated to high risk people. But we have no system to do that.</p>
<p>I've read in the Swarthmore college newspaper that even Tamiflu is being rationed in colleges now. The discussion on helbal remedies is very helpful, thanks!</p>
<p>As to distribution, the other problem is "invented demand" - there is, at least in my state, roughly the same number of doses of vaccine as shots were GIVEN last year - but with all the hype, the demand has gone up! Now, of course, some people who needed shots didn't get them last year either, but if the distribution problem was solved, there would be enough vaccine for the most in need.
Of course, if there was profit in vaccine, we wouldn't have this problem at all, but there's no profit, and the liability issues are not inconsiderable.</p>
<p>Wash your hands, get plenty of rest, drink your chicken soup, avoid crowded spaces (a real challenge if you are in college).</p>
<p>As to the health care system, I'm not sure we'll ever have a health care system in this country draconian enough to get the vaccine back that is in the hands of private companies that go in and do mass vaccinations for private industry - those companies are kind of like the groups that do insurance physicals, they are not in the mainstream of acute health care. The real distribution problem is that Chiron was so much cheaper than Aventis, that it had won lots of the large long term contracts with hospitals, nursing homes and public health entities - the gov't and the non-profits do lowest bidder. Childrens' hospitals and pediatricians have more vaccine because more of their supply came from Aventis, and with the new recommendations for vaccinating young children that came out this year before the Chiron fiasco, they [re[ared to give more shots.</p>
<p>Fortunately, none of us is over 50! hahahahahahahaha</p>
<p>Btw, I have had my first experience of talking to someone who was bragging about having had a flu shot. This person did not get one because of any of the usual criteria discussed here, but because of connections at the hospital.</p>
<p>I wonder if you can be flu shot legacy?</p>
<p>"Fortunately, none of us is over 50! hahahahahahahaha"</p>
<p>Maybe not, but some of us are dangerously close!</p>
<p>To all who so kindly responded to my posts, my daughter did finally get her flu shot, at the student health center! Thanks for your support!</p>
<p>momofthree,
I am pleased to hear that your daughter got her shot. I am crossing my fingers that this will be the flu season that never was.</p>
<p>Elleneast, thanks, and thanks for your help. I hope the same!</p>
<p>Also glad your daughter rec'd her shot. Hope more supply opens up after the big rush. I had 100 doses for my Skilled nursing pts, it was reduced to 80 since we have never used more than 80. I fought real hard with facts/data that the elderly should have all 100 when nurses complained. Got to keep all 100. Now I have had the last 20 for ages-keep reminding the nurses to ask the physicians to order my last 18 doses. Maybe posting will bring me luck and get those 18 used.</p>
<p>Good to see that some doses remain for those who really need them. My parents (ages 89 and 85) were finally able to get their shots earlier this week.</p>
<p>And you thought this thread was completely dead.</p>
<p>We went to Canada for Thanksgiving (Vancouver). Wonderful trip. Both husband and daughter walked into a medical clinic and walked out ten minutes later having had their flu shots. $25 Canadian (about $20 American), which is cheaper than our usual place, and that included a brief visit with the doctor. They did have to sign a paper saying that if they sued, they'd sue in Canada, not in the US.</p>
<p>Apparently, the Canadian government orders the number of flu shots they need every year, offers them free or cheap to their citizens, and offers the rest to anyone else (including Americans) at a slight premium (although apparently one clinic charges $150 Canadian--and it was across the street from the one they went to). This seems to be working better than the American system of free markets for vaccines, where many get wasted (2002) or there's an inadequate supply (2003, 2004).</p>
<p>dmd:</p>
<p>My HMO seemed to have enough shots for anyone considered at high-risk (MA issued a rule permitting only high-risk people to be vaccinated). Harvard had earlier reported that it had 8,000 shots, then decided it had more than it needed then either sold or gave away the excess to the city of Boston. Columbia had none, as Sac reported earlier. The free market system seems to be rather inefficient when dealing with short-term crises.</p>
<p>Yes, Marite, some clinics had some for their high-risk patients. My husband, however, who is considered high risk due to his lymphoma, was unable to find any shots anywhere. His oncologist's order was not filled, because it came from the "wrong" company. In fact, it was his oncologist who recommended that we go to Canada for the shots!</p>
<p>Dmd:</p>
<p>Isn't it appalling how totally capricious the "system"--if one wants to call it that-- is? I'm glad you are close enough to the Canadian border to take advantage of the availability of flu shots there.</p>