Posted on 12/03/2009 9:04:48 PM PST by buccaneer81
Too few showing up at H1N1 clinics Thursday, December 3, 2009 11:21 PM By Misti Crane THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Rows of chairs sat empty at Veterans Memorial.
Dana Warner, the guy in charge of handing out tickets and answering initial questions, had a thick book on his chair, just in case.
Nurses stationed at tables with plenty of vaccine waved to signal open seats.
H1N1 vaccine clinics aren't what they used to be. Story continues below Advertisement
Tuesday night's Columbus Public Health clinic was absent the weary-eyed parents who'd spent hours entertaining toddlers. There were no frantic public-health workers trying to move people through as fast as possible.
Vaccine recipients and their parents thought this was great news.
Public-health leaders, though, are concerned and thinking hard about how to reach more people and keep public interest high in the face of waning demand.
H1N1 flu continues to sicken many Americans, and the risks to some people are serious.
Today, Columbus Public Health said a second Franklin County child who had the virus died Nov. 13.
Aden Hong of Columbus died of other medical conditions, not from H1N1, said the Rev. Ben Blowers of Columbus Wesleyan Methodist Church. Some of Aden's relatives attend his church. Blowers did not share further details.
The boy is the second child in Franklin County who died after contracting the virus. Jon Fowler, an eighth-grader at Holy Spirit School in Whitehall, died on Oct. 8 at Nationwide Children's Hospital. After his death, a classmate told The Dispatch that Fowler had asthma.
As of today, the Ohio Department of Health had confirmed 41 deaths associated with the virus, including three pediatric deaths. The state list did not include Hong's. Health officials will never have a complete count of H1N1 deaths, in large part because there's no requirement that adult deaths be reported.
Each year, about 36,000 Americans die of complications from seasonal flu.
To try to lower the toll attributed to the H1N1 strain, doctors, hospitals and public-health agencies have been working to vaccinate as many people as possible.
About 2.3 million doses of vaccine have come into the state, enough to cover less than half of those considered at greatest risk for complications, said Kristopher Weiss, spokesman for the state Health Department.
Columbus Health Commissioner Dr. Teresa Long cautioned that lower rates of flu-related activity seen for the past several weeks don't mean the flu is gone.
"I'm worried that we're not out of the woods on this yet, that there may still be a lot of disease coming our way," she said.
By the end of the city's three-hour clinic Tuesday, nurses had given 1,016 doses of vaccine of 2,000 available.
Two of those went to Jenna and Hannah Wagoner, 6-year-old twins from New Albany who were there for their second dose. For the first dose, their parents opted for a Geauga County clinic with much shorter lines than those here, said their mother, Amy.
She was pleasantly surprised by the speedy clinic this week, as were Kim and Keith Anderson of southwestern Columbus, who brought their six children.
"It was convenient, very efficient and very well-organized," Mrs. Anderson said.
It also was free, unlike a visit to the pediatrician's office or to Walmart, which is administering a limited number of doses of the vaccine in the Columbus area for $15 each.
As she has seen lines dwindle, Long said she's trying to think of new approaches to getting vaccine to more people, including those who often struggle to get health care.
As of today, she hadn't planned any school-based clinics, but she was planning one at Easton and one at a largely African-American church. She also was looking to vaccinate some vulnerable people in smaller clinics not open to the general public.
The state has not yet decided to open up vaccine availability to the general public, and it has intervened in cases where local agencies have done that on their own, Weiss said. Elsewhere in the country, including some areas of Utah, vaccine is being given to anyone who wants it.
Jesse Carter, spokesman for the Delaware General Health District, said he, like Long and Weiss, worries about the many at-risk people who haven't been vaccinated.
"It's just a question of, 'How do we reach people? How do we make them aware of our clinics?'"
mcrane@dispatch.com
Them shots will mess you up.
Well here is what I’m trying to figure out...
From memory, in order (i think):
Population Bomb
Ice Age
Acid Rain
Depletion of the Ozone
Y2K
Globull Warming
What is up? Do we live in fear of our ultimate demise? Is it programmed into us so strongly that people can so easily manipulate us? Or do we just need something to do? Or perhaps we need the bogeyman?
I just don’t get humans... But I AM ONE!
Obvouslly I forgot to ad Pandemic.
Obviously I forgot to ad Pandemic.
It is a pandemic, it’s just that pandemic doesn’t necessarily equal Captain Trips from The Stand.
Despite the best efforts of the media, people are making reasoned, rational choices.
Well if nobody else wants one, give one to my father. He’s paranoid about the H1N1 flu.
Anyone wanting to take the injection earmarked for me, you’re welcome to it.
I don’t plan to darken the door of clinic or doctors office for this or ANY flu vaccine. Never had one, never will.
Is the annual flue defined as a pandemic?
Dang, they'll have to come up with another scheme.
Maybe when the thousands of us who can't afford their health-care insurance are being rounded up for jail?
Well, in my county, they keep stressing that the H1N1 clinics are only for those without insurance AND those in high risk groups like pregnancy, athsmatics, blah blah blah. . .
That’s a small category, so the vast majority of us are discouraged from showing up—and our private docs don’t seem to ever carry it, so there you have it.
Pediatricians have it (small amounts though) and I got my 4 children vaccinated a month ago, and am very glad I did so.
Any flu strain could potentially have a pandemic, but H3N2 is rare in years when H1N1 is common. The two flu strains are negatively correlated.
I wouldn’t/won’t get the vaccine. I won’t let my young children get the either.
Last week on Tuesday before Thanksgiving my oldest, a 6 year old boy, got sick. Big deal. But I wanted the strep swab because that can be a problem.
So they swab his nose and say “he has the flu. we are sure it is h1n1.” How? “because it has to be if he tested positive for any type A.” Really? I thought the flu cocktail had other type A strains in it and the boy didn’t get that. “yes, but since he tested positive for a Type A, he must have h1n1.”.
ok...... It was nothing. The boy had barely a fever and was tired for 2 days.
Then on Friday after Thanksgiving it is the 2 year old girls turn. Same thing. I want a throat swab. When a 2 year old is saying “boo boo throat” just give me a strep swab please.
They swab her nose. She has a type A of some kind. “it’s the h1n1.” how do you know that? “well it has to be.” oh jeez I’m not doing this again.
Now on Sunday I get it. I go to a walkin clinic. The same mother f-ing thing happened. My throat hurt. I wanted a strep swab. They went for my nose and I said NO. They did both nose and throat. No strep. But I got a type A flu. Again, different doc, same words “you have h1n1.” You tested for h1n1 or type a? “type a but you must have h1n1”
good gosh.
Remember when docs had the brains to consider evidence and symptoms?
I recently read about a possible emergence of H5N1...know anything about that?
CA....
I trust a corn dog vendor at a county fair more than I trust this government.
Is is fear or anticipation? Since Planet of the Apes (actually since The Time Machine, popular fiction/culture has included increasingly apocalyptic visions of the future. How many movies show the future as bright and shiny, with social problems all gone?
With the exception of Demolition Man, which did not present that in a good light, I can't think of many.
I wonder why that is? If Maybe programing from all the disasters that have hit humans from famine, black plague, wars... I wonder.
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