WASHINGTON (AP) - Swine flu vaccinations began Monday with squirts up the noses of health care workers in Indiana, Illinois and Tennessee - it just tickled, shrugged one - as the government opened a massive effort to immunize over half the nation in a few months.
Delaware County receives 1,100 doses of the H1N1 vaccine today, with an unknown quantity - maybe 20 to 30 - coming to Ball State University, said Kent Bullis, director of the Amelia T. Wood Health Center.
Bullis said the university would receive an increased amount of doses as the flu season progresses.
Ball State requested 8,000 doses, but Bullis said he is unsure if the university will get them all.
But don't try to line up an appointment just yet: Only as many as 7 million doses of vaccine are expected among the three states by the end of the week. Divided up, that makes for such small initial shipments that most states are reserving early vaccine for doctors and other front-line health workers who already are being sneezed on by flu sufferers.
"I needed that protection," Dr. John Eshun said, a gastroenterologist who was among the first in line for vaccine at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. More than 5,500 kids with flu like illness have sought emergency care at that hospital since Aug. 1.
In Indianapolis, health workers made jokes as they waited to have FluMist - the nasal-spray vaccine that, packed in white coolers, was the first shipped - squirted into each nostril while TV cameras rolled.
"It's manufactured the same way as the seasonal flu vaccine, and I never get the flu," 30-year-old Jennifer McFarland said, an Indianapolis paramedic who swears by her annual vaccination and this year will need two - one to protect against swine flu and the other to protect against regular winter flu.
Vaccinations against swine flu - what scientists call the 2009 H1N1 strain - won't gear up in earnest until mid-October, when at least 40 million doses will have rolled out, with more coming each week. Even then, first doses are supposed to be for the people at highest risk of catching swine flu. Arkansas earmarked its first shipment, expected Tuesday, for in-school vaccinations. Pennsylvania, too, will send early shipments to school-age kids in parts of the state where swine flu already is active.
But this is uncharted territory. You really can't plan too far ahead to say, "I'll schedule my swine flu shot on Oct. 16 at Clinic X." Only as shipments start arriving will local doctors, clinics, school vaccination programs and drugstores get word that their doses are coming and how much. Each state health department decides that.
"Take a deep breath, be patient, wait a couple of days, make another phone call and cut everyone a little slack because it's a little hectic out there, folks," Dr. William Schaffner says, a flu vaccine specialist at Vanderbilt University.
And keep track of which vaccine you've gotten: Recipients of the swine flu vaccine are being given "vaccination record" cards to help. Seasonal vaccine is widely available now, even through workplaces, but the lower-risk general public may not get access to the swine flu vaccine until November.
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