SPOKANE-- Thousands of people showed up Saturday for a free Swine Flu vaccine clinic in Spokane. Some people were turned away, even though health officials had several thousand doses of the vaccine remaining.
Now the Spokane Regional Health District is coming up with a plan as to what to do with the leftover vaccines.
The district administered the Swine Flu vaccine in both the nasal spray and shot form. It had a total of 4,300 vaccines but only 800 of them were in shot form.
Unlike the nasal spray, the shot does not have a live strain of the virus, so the shot went to pregnant women, very young children, and people with underlying health problems. The injectables ran out after only three hours, so those people were then turned away.
At the end, health officials still had approximately 2,000 nasal spray doses remaining. The health district plans to keep some of those vaccines for future clinics, and will distribute the rest to hospitals and doctors’ offices. The breakdown will be based on the individual needs of the providers. Dr. Joel McCullough, director of the Spokane Health District, says many people are frustrated because they can’t get the vaccines but says the health district is doing the best it can to get the vaccine out to health care providers quickly.
The health district’s next free walk-in Swine Flu Vaccine Clinic is November 2nd at the West Central Community Center. This is just one of a dozen scheduled clinics.
