From the Chicago Department of Public Health:"The Chicago Department of Public Health’s (CDPH) drive to protect Chicagoans from H1N1 flu continues to succeed, with health workers vaccinating over 75,000 men, women and children in just 11 days of clinic operations.
The seven mass-vaccination sites will not be open during Thanksgiving Week, and will re-open for the first three Saturdays in December (the 5th, 12th and 19th)." Truman College will be giving vaccinations those days from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
“(C)ontinues to succeed?” I’m not so sure about that. The vaccine was not distributed according to the tiered protocol specified by the CDC, meaning the populations that were most vulnerable and needing the vaccine (health care workers, young children, pregnant women and the chronically ill) did not receive it while others, many of whom have some natural immunity, did. Given that more than 1600 people have been hospitalized and more than 50 people have died in Illinois this year for want of the immunity this vaccine provides, I’d hardly categorize this vaccine initiative a success. At least not in Cook County.
ReplyDeleteI was at the City of Chicago's vaccination clinic at Wright College on Saturday, and there was no line---which I found weird because the lines shown on TV were huge. A staff member said that there was more vaccine than people who wanted the shot---not only at Wright but at all City vaccination clinics. So I find it hard to believe that anyone in Chicago who wants a shot can't get one. Now, in the suburban part of Cook County, I dunno.
ReplyDeleteSJS, there were 6 hour waits at some locations and no one at yours? Best evidence yet that the distribution scheme was a mess. There are pediatricians and pulminologists still unable to secure vaccine for their most vulnerable patients.
ReplyDeleteSuzanne Elder, I assume that you are referring to six-hour waits somewhere in the suburbs. The city staff member I spoke with on Saturday also said that Wright College (which was not busy at all) was the busiest of all the sites in the city. That other sites (she named two on the South Side) have almost no takers at all. I recall that Jay Levine recently aired a story showing how providers in the city had vaccine, yet suburban doctors just a mile or two away had zero vaccine. Check the CBS 2 website. It's still posted there. I think what's going on is that the city seems to be cranking out its vaccine (which they receive directly from the feds like NYC and L.A. do)---yet the State government in Springfield is fumbling the ball. The CDC website says that the feds have already shipped 1.6 million doses to Springfield. The question is, where are they?
ReplyDeletePerhaps it's best to distribute the vaccine first to those most vulnerable to the ill effects of H1N1. This seems like a good way to prevent people from becoming deathly ill--given that they happen to be attacked by the virus.
ReplyDeleteBut then, there's a flip side. It seems to me that those least vulnerable are the ones most likely to successfully transmit the virus to many people. People laid up sick in bed (or, perhaps, dead) are not very likely to transmit the virus to other people. So perhaps it's the least vulnerable who should be vaccinated first.
Nope. Six hour waits were SOP in the first 3-4 weeks of the schedule and occurred at most City Colleges including our very own Truman College. The distribution plan was nill; it was centralized and gave no preference to care providers who treat the most vulnerable. It was first come first serve which absolutely ensured that some number of hospitalizations and deaths were preventable.
ReplyDeleteJoey, I think you're mixing up your immunology with your genetics ;-))
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