Originally published October 19 2005
Experts doubt the demand for flu vaccine will be met
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Many health officials are skeptical about the capacity of drug manufacturers to prevent a vaccine shortage and meet their projected 97 million doses.
The supply of vaccine for the coming winter's flu season may be the biggest in the country's history, but with vaccination clinics barely underway, it is too early to know if it will be enough to meet the demand.
Total supply could be as high as 97 million doses, about a third more than was available last year when the sudden loss of one company's total production created a frantic search for flu shots nationwide.
Partly in response to that shortage, the government and the biggest manufacturer have taken steps to assure that vaccine goes first this year to those who need it most.
"Right now it looks like demand is going to be good.
It also looks like supply is going to be good," said Donald Williamson, the state health officer of Alabama and spokesman for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
But, he said, health care providers will not know the true demand for flu shots until they start vaccinating low-risk people -- a process that under federal guidelines is not supposed to happen until Oct. 24, and will not begin in earnest until well into November.
(Its presence in birds in Romania was confirmed Saturday.)
Although the seasonal flu vaccine does not protect against bird flu, fears of a possible pandemic of the latter may have raised public consciousness about influenza in general.
Last week, the FDA tested and approved the first three lots of about 500,000 shots each.
Sanofi Pasteur, a division of a French pharmaceutical giant, made 60 million doses, the most of any company supplying the U.S. market.
If Chiron meets its upper-end production estimate -- it will announce its production totals later this month -- the nation will have a total of 97 million doses.
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