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Not "too late" for H1N1 flu vaccine: health secretary
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Some of the 1,200 people who braved rain and 39 degree (3 degrees Celcius) temperatures queue to receive a free H1N1 flu vaccine at Richard J. Daley College in Chicago October 24, 2009.
Despite long lines and limited supplies of the H1N1 flu vaccine, U.S. efforts against the disease are not too late, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Monday.
Sebelius acknowledged frustrating waits to get the vaccine, but said some 16.5 million doses are now being made available, with efforts to get more.
"I never like to see people inconvenienced," Sebelius said on ABC's "Good Morning America. "If we had found the virus a little earlier, we could have started a little earlier."
Asked whether this effort might be too late in light of one estimate that the H1N1 flu virus will peak by October 31, Sebelius said, "I don't think it's too late ... What we saw in 1950s (flu pandemic) was that there was a big outbreak in fall and then a new wave in the spring."
With a future wave of H1N1 possible, vaccination is still useful, Sebelius said.
She acknowledged that four out of five sources of the vaccine are outside the United States, but said an additional U.S. plant will be making the vaccine in 2010.
New York, NY |
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