The swine flu vaccine is coming soon — the first doses will be available the first week of October. But doctors are telling seniors to hold off on getting a swine flu vaccine.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that three point four million doses of swine flu vaccine will be available the first week of October — in nasal spray form. Shots will soon follow, for a total of nearly 200 million doses of swine flu vaccine available by the end of 2009. Once the distribution is in full swing, you can expect to see twenty million doses going out per week.
The nasal spray version of the vaccine is approved for ages two to forty-nine. However, it is NOT recommended for pregnant women, children under the age of two, people with asthma, and people with other chronic respiratory disease — some of the people at highest risk for catching swine flu. Adults will most likely only require one dose of the swine flu vaccine; children under ten may need two doses for full protection. But the CDC is confident that the swine flu vaccine is a good, strong match for the disease.
Don’t forget: the swine flu vaccine is separate from the seasonal flu vaccine. You may want to consider getting both if you are at risk.
As for seniors, the official position is that it’s best for them to wait to get the swine flu shot. The government has ordered 195 million doses of swine flu vaccine — in a typical year, less than 100 million Americans get the seasonal flu vaccine — so there may be plenty available for everyone.
The seniors just might not need it.
A poll from the Associated Press found that eighty-two percent of seniors were interested in getting a swine flu shot. But research suggests that seniors may already have a partial immunity to the disease. This is pretty good news, actually, for an age group that is often at high risk for contagious disease.
It is still important for seniors to get vaccinated for seasonal flu.
Federal guidelines for swine flu vaccine distribution are as follows: the first group to be vaccinated will be pregnant women, those who live with or care for children under the age of six months, health care workers, people with chronic health issues, people with compromised immune systems, and people between the ages of six months and 24 years. That adds up to about 159 million Americans.
After that, the shots will be available to healthy adults under the age of 64. If doses of the vaccine remain after that, they will be available to adults over the age of 64 (the group that may already have partial immunity).