wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

The reason for prioritizing children, teenagers, and young adults is their liklihood to congregate in close confines in places like schools.

If that is the case, every single New York subway rider should be considered part of the high risk group -- regardless of their age. I have never seen a school that packed students together as tight as I experience every day during my rush hour commute.

The reason this won't fly, of course, is the outsized influence of legislators from sparseley populated parts of the country, who would complain that New Yorkers don't deserve priority. This even though the average daily commute in their parts occurs isolated in motorized glass bubbles.

It would take the average American at least a month to encounter in close proximity as many people as the average New Yorker does on a daily basis.

There should be some consideration for that.

doesn't it look like flu shot hysteria? if you stay in like, waiting for the shot, take out your iphone and check this link. i love it.
http://www.naturalnews.com/026503_pandemic_swine_flu_bioterrorism.html

If you are sick, do not let them give you the nasal mist vaccine!! I stood in line for 3 hours at the Ryan Nena Clinic on East 3rd Street in order to get my 18 mo old the shot. There were like 300 people there, some turned away--including pregnant women. And yet they gave the shot to all sorts of regular, healthy-looking people who were not in the at-risk age groups--it was whoever got in line first. I did not expect to get the vaccine myself because I am 45 years old and my son is older than 6 months. But when the screener told me I qualified, I figured I might as well given the shortage. I told the screener I had had a bad cough for 3 weeks, to the extent that I had already been previously tested for H1N1 (result negative). They said as long as I did not have a high fever I was okay to get the nasal mist. For some reason I thought the nasal mist would be less invasive than the shot, but be warned--the nasal mist contains a weakened but still ACTIVE strain of the virus. I woke up the next morning with stuffy nose, itchy eyes, feeling dizzy and exhausted. By that night I was vomiting with diarrhea and running a fever. I vomited for 2 days. Worried that I could have contracted a mild version of swine flu, I called back the clinic. A doctor on call told me that vomiting and diarrhea were not one known side effects of the vaccine. She claimed I must have contracted another virus coincidentally. When I called the CDC they told me I COULD potentially have contracted H1N1, and that I should seek immediate medical care. When I tried to see a doctor at the clinic, they told me I had to wait and come back during walk in hours. I couldn't get an appointment anywhere, least of all that clinic. Fortunately, after 3 days, I recovered. But my lesson in all of this is: Be wary of the nasal mist vaccine if you are already sick or have a sensitive system

I don't know what to say about the people desperately searching for the H1N1, as I was. My heart goes out.

If you go to the clinic, arrive early, when they open at 8:30. I arrived c. 11 am; when I left at 1 pm, the line seemed about the same (about 10 people outside the building--just the preliminary line, there were more lines to wait in inside).

The woman who gave me the two shots said that they had received a batch of H1N1 that morning.

I have had no apparent difficulties with getting the two shots at the same time.

The CDC indicates that both seasonal and H1N1 (inactivated virus) SHOTS can be given together:

http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/vaccination/public/vaccination_qa_pub.htm

"Can the seasonal vaccine and the 2009 H1N1 vaccine be given at the same time?

"Inactivated 2009 H1N1 vaccine can be administered at the same visit as any other vaccine, including pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine. Live 2009 H1N1 vaccine can be administered at the same visit as any other live or inactivated vaccine EXCEPT seasonal live attenuated influenza vaccine."

(Gene, by the way, is usually considered a male name, Gene Tierney being the only exception I know of.)

I think there is an error in targeting only the "most vulnerable" groups. We should also try to promote vaccination among those most likely to spread the virus:
- frequent fliers
- all students
- food service personnel
- retail workers in high-traffic locations
- MASS-TRANSIT users!
and others already on the list:
- health care workers

BTW, re: the poster above who says she got H1N1 and seasonal at the same time, I believe that is NOT to be done, that a week or two between vaccinations is recommended. This is why there is no routine offering of both together.

I put my child on our pediatrician's "call back" list for the h1n1 vaccine. In the meantime, anxious to get my asthma-suffering 4.5 year old protected as the flu season sets in, I called one of the walk-in clinics in October, and was told that only my pediatrician could administer the shot to such a young child. After another 2-3 weeks, earlier in November, I called back the pediatrician's office to ask when we could expect the "call back", only to be redirected to a flu hotline where I learned that the vaccine would not be available in the office at all. This is when I learned about the extra clinics around the city. We are in WaHi--one of the worst affected neighborhoods for juvenile asthma, and of course, the extra clinics in this neighborhood are in December... Now, if I hear your guest right, she's recommending that anyone seeking the 2nd shot should try one of the clinics outside their area--does that mean that my child could miss out all together because of the rush for 2nd doses? This is a complete mess--with all the build up on this flu strain, the issues with production, and now the distribution is patchy and random. Perhaps Mayor Bloomberg would like to say a few words about it, or accompany us as we spend our weekend running around unfamiliar parts of the city, standing in line to get shots that we should be able to get by appointment in our pediatrician's office.

The issues are not only distribution, but also accurate information. I am 38 weeks pregnant and have been trying to get vaccinated since September. No H1N1 at any of my doctors' offices, and they ran out of seasonal before I could get it. The clinics identified on the city's website often do not answer phones, don't have any more vaccine, are offering appointments only to existing patients, are not feasible for me to get to without a car, or promise a 3+ hour wait at least. The first weekend of the citywide clinics, it was not advertised that they would be providing shots beyond the middle/high school group. My OB expected to have H1N1 this week, so I also did not go to the weekend clinic last weekend...and then the OB didn't actually get any of the vaccine. I know many, MANY people who have reported similar experiences.

I think I will skip on a mercury shot thanks!

We have had a VERY hard time finding the vaccine here in South Orange -- in fact, I am taking the day off work today to bring my 9-year-old son (who has asthma) to the local public health dept. to get the shot. We had to go through hoops to get him signed up. Everyone I know is going through the same thing - anytime word gets out that the vaccine is available anywhere, public or private clinic, the appointments fill up within hours. It is so ironic that there is a surplus in some places in NYC!

Our pediatrician's office is only offering H1N1 to high risk children and isn't offering any information on when additional vaccine shipments will be available. I'm 8 months pregnant and was only given the shot yesterday by my OB's office (they are only providing it to women in their third trimester). After being advised by numerous health care providers and officials that the vaccine is so important it has been extremely frustrating that our doctors here in Westchester have to ration supplies.

I finally managed to get H1N1 vaccine from my local health department, but the level of transparency has been horrible. The CDC website lists how many doses have been sent to each state. But at the state, county and local level there's no information -- at least in New Jersey. Basically, I had to just keep checking every day with my town health department until they had it.

I've been trying to get the H1N1 vaccine for a while. My doctor in Soho says they don't know if or when they will get it. My husband's doctor (Upper West Side) had some of the H1N1 flu spray vaccine, which I can't get because I have asthma. I made an appointment with a community clinic (in the East Village) to get the vaccine (the appointment was for two weeks after I called them) and few days after I got the appointment, they cancelled it saying they were out of vaccine. I just tried calling another community clinic (Williamsburg) and they're not even picking up the phone. It's getting ridiculous. I got the regular flu vaccine back in September. If there are all these people afraid to get a swine flu shot, why is it so hard for someone who actually wants one to get it?

Early Oct I asked my doctor to give me a flu shot at my annual 0physical; when I got there, he wa out. Same story with my 2 kids' pediatrician about 5-6 weeks ago (now on a waiting list). Yesterday, having received an alert via our public school that a clinic would be held on Monday next at another local school I called to sign up and found their mailbox was full! (I'm omitting several other attempts that have been fruitless,e.g. at local pharmacies). There seems to be no vaccine for either flu around here!

I took my eighth-grade son to a "clinic" in a Maspeth school last Sunday (he received the nasal vaccine) and hardly anyone was there. I think all the media "hoopla" as you mentioned has contributed to parents' concern about the vaccine. To my surprise (and I normally never get seasonal flu shots for myself or my family), most parents I know have decided not to vaccinate their children for H1N1. They are worried about what happened in the last swine flu epidemic (1970s). The hype has created mistrust.

Why do older children not need the second vaccine? These things are not fully explained and, therefore, parents mistrust the exhortations to do it.

We're planning on trying to get pregnant starting January. So I'd like to get both the regular flu shot and the H1N1, but I was told I can't get it our here on Long Island - that I'd have to go to Manhattan to get it.

Where should I go?

My wife is 7 months pregnant and has become very frustrated at her inability to get the H1N1 vaccine. If there is a surplus, the city's has failed miserably at effectively dispensing the vaccine. My wife has been to two clinics that were supposed to have the vaccine, according to the city's website. The first was out of vaccines, the second turned out to be non-existent. No one was there. We were followed by a parade of people similarly misdirected by the city's site, including a doctor at Columbia who has been unable to get the vaccine.

Oops, I should mention, that was last Wed. or Thu. at:

Lower Manhattan Health Center
303 Ninth Avenue - 1st Fl.
Manhattan, New York 10001
Btwn: 27th & 28th Sts.

Brian - I was trying to get the H1N1, but I'll take either at this point. Can your guest please tell me & my other moms where to get it?
-Fearn (Upper East Side)

I've been calling around to various clinics/medical facilities. Couldn't find any.

I went to my favorite clinic, on 9th Ave between 27 and 28th for the seasonal flu. There was a small line, and a woman said it would be 2 hours start -to-finish.

She was right. THere was also an opportunity to get the H1N1(!) I got both seasonal and H1N1 with no problem at all. I was surprised that I seemed to be the only one in my immediate vicinity (say, 5 people) to choose to get the H1N1.

(I ALWAYS get flu shots; otherwise I'll get the flu. My girlfriend is the opposite; never gets the flu shot, never gets the flu.)

my daughter goes to a private school where flu shots were promised for K-6. Then made available to k-5 only after we had already filled out the forms with all our personal information. Not only can we not get flue shots from our own pediatrician, all the clinics were were told to go to are "out". The story you're running about the surplus has not been my experience!

(ahem-- that would be H1NI and the influenza *vaccines*...)

Now that the "early adapters" have gone ahead and tested this vaccine, can we make any new assumptions about its risks and its safety?

Also, can the H1NI and the influenza be administered in the same doctor's visit?