Flu vaccine: Too much of a good thing?

Faced with a possible surplus, physicians and public health experts now wonder how to boost lagging demand.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Oct. 28, 2002.

Ronald Bangasser, MD's phone has been ringing off the hook. Would he like to buy more flu vaccine, the callers ask. But the family physician has already got plenty.

Dr. Bangasser, director of external affairs at Beaver Medical Group in Redlands, Calif., has been vaccinating his high-risk patients for several weeks, and he's well stocked to vaccinate his staff and his lower-risk patients over the next month.

That's a far cry from the situation during the past two years. Flu vaccine was late, if it arrived at all, and his high-risk patients went without, while those at lower risk received their vaccinations at the chain drug store or grocery elsewhere in town.

"It's perfect. We're giving it out like crazy to everybody who's high-risk," said Dr. Bangasser, who is also president-elect of the California Medical Assn.

After two years of shortages and delays caused by manufacturing difficulties and uneven distribution, the United States will have more vaccine this year than ever before.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 92.7 million doses will be available this season, and more than 80% of them will be delivered by Nov. 1. Last year, 87 million doses were produced, and there were a few delays. In 2000, there were only 75 million doses and significant delays.

"Now, let's use it and vaccinate as many people as we can," said Dennis J. O'Mara, associate director for adult immunization at the CDC National Immunization Program.

Physicians and public health officials say the questions are no longer: Who gets the vaccine first, who gets deferred and who doesn't get it all? Instead, they are asking: How do we use up most of this vaccine, and what are the implications if we don't? How do we increase vaccination rates among those who are high-risk, as well as get the word out to new groups of people targeted for vaccination? [...]