Flu Shots in Short Supply/Woman Dies in Waiting in Line

Flu shots are in short supply. Kerry blames the President. Old folks have to stand in line for hours, one dies. Jail terms threatened for unscrupulous healthcare workers. They always make me just as sick as the flu does, so I guess I won't miss getting mine.

Calif. woman dies after wait for flu shot

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Bob Franklin looks at photos of his wife, Marie, Friday, Oct. 15, 2004, in his Orinda, Calif., home. Marie died Thursday after fainting and hitting her head while waiting in line for a flu shot at a local supermarket. (AP Photo/Dino Vournas)
LAFAYETTE, Calif. -- A 79-year-old woman who stood in line outside a supermarket for more than five hours waiting for a flu shot collapsed and later died, the woman's daughter said.

Marie Franklin stood with her husband and hundreds of other seniors outside a Safeway supermarket Wednesday but collapsed when she left the line to seek shade, striking her head, said Ginni Poulos, Franklin's daughter.

Franklin died from her injuries on Thursday, according to the country coroner's office.

"She was standing the entire time, with nowhere to sit and no shade," Poulos said.
seattlepi.nwsource.com...

Fines, jail time threatened in flu shot shortage
States vow to crack down on unscrupulous health care providersThe Associated Press

Updated: 6:54 p.m. ET Oct. 15, 2004LANSING, Mich. - Thinking of trying to wheedle a flu shot from your doctor even though you�re not at high-risk for flu complications?

Forget about it in Michigan. Or Washington, D.C. Or Massachusetts.

As the vaccine shortage hits home and long lines queue around the supermarket, a handful of states and the nation�s capital are threatening doctors and nurses with fines or even jail if they give flu shots to healthy, low-risk people.

Health officials downplay the punishment and say that most health care workers are following the guidelines.
msnbc.msn.com...

Flu shot shortage looms

Chiron, vaccine maker that was to provide half of U.S. supply, forced to shut down British plant.
October 6, 2004: 6:41 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Public health officials predicted a flu vaccine shortage in the United States this season after Chiron Corp. said Tuesday it won't be able to make millions of doses of the vaccine due to problems at its British plant.

The drug maker's bombshell that it will not be able to ship its supply of flu shots this year presents a major problem for consumers and investors alike. CNNfn's Fred Katayama reports.

Chiron, based in Emeryville in northern California, said in a statement that it had expected to provide nearly half the U.S. supply of flu shots for the 2004-2005 season. It said it was discussing the impact of the problems with the U.S. authorities at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
money.cnn.com...

Flu Shot Seekers' Tempers Flare

(CBS/AP) Seventy-year-old Homer Fink spent eight hours sitting next to a supermarket Halloween display to get a flu shot that he wasn't able to get at five other places.

"I've had five bypasses and six stents in me now. I need the shot," said Fink, who got the third spot in line by arriving at 1 a.m. Friday for a clinic scheduled to start at 9 at the Kroger store. It was the last vaccination clinic in the area.

The scene was repeated across the country as the nation's suddenly limited supply of flu vaccine was drained. People lined up at pharmacies and supermarkets in the middle of the night: old folks with oxygen tanks, sleeping children bundled up in strollers, people in wheelchairs.
www.cbsnews.com...

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[edit on 04/10/16 by GradyPhilpott]

I keep reading about the flu shot shortage and the crisis relating to it? Is it only now that there is a shortage that everybody feels the need for the shot. I have never had a flu shot, none of my friends have had one in previous years either but now feel that they are being deprived???

Create a shortage, and everyone wants something they can't
get their hands on.

[edit on 18-10-2004 by ZeroDeep]

The older generation seems to be more paranoid about not getting the flu shot. They grew up in an environment where most people tended to believe anything that was dished out to them as long as it came from some governing authority. This blind faith in someone other than themselves is not good.

Originally posted by Mynaeris
I keep reading about the flu shot shortage and the crisis relating to it? Is it only now that there is a shortage that everybody feels the need for the shot. I have never had a flu shot, none of my friends have had one in previous years either but now feel that they are being deprived???

The elderly, young children and those with compromised immune systems are always encouraged to get the flu shot every year because the high fever and respiratory infection associated with the flu may kill them. Nurses, caregivers and teacher will also get flu shots every year because if they get the flu, they can pass it on to their wards, who can become deathly ill.

If you and your friends are mainly healthy adults, you probably have never been encouraged to get a flu shot because you could survive the flu if you get it. However, if you do get the flu, you will FEEL like you are going to die, but you will survive nonetheless. Last year, however, HMOs held a big marketing campaign to encourage everyone to get a flu shot--not just those who really need them. They put the fear of God in people that they were going to die if they didn't get the shot, quoting statistics like the number of deaths caused by influenza, etc. They did this because the flu is the number one cause of sick days & they were trying to reduce them. Of course, it backfired this year because many of the people that were scared out of their wits last year can't get a shot this year and are panicking.

I got the flu a few years ago and missed two weeks of work, not to mention I felt like I was going to die. I got it because there was a mass flu outbreak at my office and my whole department became ill over the course of two months. Then my boyfriend got it and gave it to his family and some of his office mates. I felt like typhoid Mary. I have gotten the flu shot since--which was offered for free at the office.

I think the main reason why healthy people are encouraged to get the flu shot is mainly to prevent them from missing work. It is pretty contagious, so even if you are healthy, if someone around you gets it, you are probably going to get it also. I would also equate having the flu with getting 24-hour root canal without novocaine for a week. It's not a pleasant experience.

I am not getting a flu shot this year, but I'm no longer working in an office so I'm not that worried. Both of my parents already got their flu shots --and I think you are right about the depression mentality--as soon as there was the slightest inkling of a shortage, they both were at the doctors office.

[edit on 19-10-2004 by lmgnyc]

Here in Tallahassee we've had some pretty long lines...my friend's father works at Publix (a grocery store) and he said the line was already in the parking lot before they even opened...

Local officials here have actually had the NERVE to demand that people STOP waiting in line...the said the elderly need not worry and that those in need will get the shot...

Come one and all...let us rally behind our gov't and show our support...