10.16.2009

H1N1: so much for the guidelines

Pliny is once again confused...

The CDC guidelines and recommendations for vaccination priority for H1N1 flu is as follows:(http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/vaccination/vaccine_keyfacts.htm)
  • pregnant women,
  • people who live with or provide care for infants younger than 6 months (e.g., parents, siblings, and day care providers),
  • health care and emergency medical services personnel,
  • people 6 months through 24 years of age, and,
  • people 25 years through 64 years of age who have certain medical conditions that put them at higher risk for influenza-related complications.
Old Pliny is in 2 of those categories: health and emergency worker with asthma.

Two of the county health services covering the counties Pliny works in decided to set up indigent health clinics in separate locations to immunize people 'who couldn't afford the vaccine'. No H1N1 vaccine was released to any of the hospitals in either county. No matter that these people work where most of the H1N1 patients congregate and where spread of the disease is most problematic. So much for the CDC guidelines.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I went here because my son's school is offering the H1N1 vaccine (free). Just to see what 'old Pliny' would say. "Guidelines" is not really ambiguous but me noggin somehow got "information about" from "guidelines."

Homer Simpson and I have too much in common.

Anyway, on to the point. I think that stinks Pliny. So I ask, do you ever feel like you're caught between two worlds?

Jared said...

Health workers should be the ones getting the vaccine FIRST.(period.) They are the ones most at risk and the ones most needed if a severe outbreak were to occur. Pregnant women and those with health conditions be damned. We cannot have people (particularly primary care personnel) sick. Being in a laboratory, I'm expendable. I don't care about being sick for a week or so. I am healthy, most lab personnel are health, the primary care people that deal with this daily, such as the physicians and nurses, need it first.

GearHedEd said...

Pliny,

It surprises you that the government is stupid?

Pliny-the-in-Between said...

Surprises me? No - but as an optimist I always have hope ;)

Asylum Seeker said...

"I think that stinks Pliny. So I ask, do you ever feel like you're caught between two worlds?"

I swear that I could turn that into a fat joke if I had the time.

Anyway, maybe this was just one big oversight and could be corrected if you noisily complain somewhere? Or, if it was intentional, maybe that could be corrected if you protest it somewhere else? It's either that, hope it corrects itself with time, or try to practice deflecting pathogens with your bare (latex gloved) hands. Or are fourth option. I don't make good trilemmas.

Harvey said...

Pliny:

I am pleased, albeit somewhat surprised to be able to say that in my State (Ohio) it appears that these guidelines are being followed rigidly. I received my free H1N1 vaccination today and, my wife (who is a nurse, but not an employee of the Hospital I work at) will also be provided with her vaccination, since she lives in my household and is a health care worker. To the best of my knowledge, the initial supplies of the injectable form have been provided only to health care organizations like hospitals. The inhaled form has been supplied only to young people who meet the criteria for its use.
Who would have guessed?

Pliny-the-in-Between said...

Ohio seems to be doing a better job than our fair state. Unfortunately, on Monday it all became moot - Pliny has H1N1. It sucks. If I go dark, you'll know why

Harvey said...

Pliny:

If published experience to date is at all reliable, your risk from H1N1 should a mild one, often lasting only 3-5 days and rarely having serious downside risk, except in youngsters. Of course, your asthma does add a little to the potential risk, but we "live in hope" that you wil recover promptly and keep regaling us with your many insights to the human condition.
Best wishes.

Richelle said...

i agree with jared that health care workers should be receiving the vaccinations first. especially if they have conditions that put them at high risk (such as our poor asthmatic pliny). not only are their chances of being exposed to h1n1 higher, but if they become infected it could spread to their patients (many of whom may be young children, the elderly, or otherwise high risk individuals).

i hope you feel better soon pliny. i enjoy your thoughts too much for you to be absent for long.

GearHedEd said...

News flash:

Schools surrounding my home town have been closed for the remainder of this week due to illness.

I think by the time the vaccine becomes widely available, it will be moot in my area.

Pliny-the-in-Between said...

Thanks for the well wishes and kind words. Flu is such a rotten little nemesis - for the first day you're afraid you might die - by day two you are afraid you won't...

Alas Pliny's well honed immune system appears to have gotten the upper hand yet again.

Seeker - no there seems to be no one to whom we can complain - one of the triumphs of decentralized decision-making is the ability to pass the buck in a circle...