Anxious Crowds Meet Ad Hoc Swine Flu Police

LOS ANGELES — The top public health official in Los Angeles County stood at a swine flu vaccination site in Compton, Calif., on Tuesday and gently told elderly residents that they really ought to go home.

“I explained to people 65 or older, ‘The reason we are doing this is for children,’ ” said the official, Jonathan E. Fielding, the director of the county’s Department of Public Health. “I told them: ‘They are at very high risk for this flu, and you’re at low risk. I am sure you wouldn’t want to get a shot that left a kid who is at risk in harm’s way.’ ”

People have lined up in Southern California and across the country in recent days in the hope of getting a prick in the arm, but a dearth of the H1N1 vaccine has created an unexpected dynamic: local government officials, hospital workers and doctors in private practice are being conscripted as ad hoc swine flu police.

The goal is to make sure that those Americans with the highest risk for contracting the virus — and experiencing the more dangerous complications that can ensue — get injected first. But the somewhat willy-nilly nature of the vaccine’s distribution in some areas, publicity surrounding President Obama’s declaration of a national emergency and the rather large population legitimately considered high risk have brought hundreds of thousands of people to vaccine distribution points.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/health/28flu.html?th&emc=th

vaccine to any and all comers, regardless of whether or not they were high-risk, or had insurance. The free county clinics are FOR HIGH RISK PEOPLE FIRST (children, young people, pregnant women, asthmatics, etc) and only when that demand has been satisfied were they to offer it to others. Unfortunately, the only free clinics scheduled for my area (San Fernando Valley) were on the first weekend, and no others are planned. All the later clinics are far far away. So apparently we uninsured and lower risk in the Valley are shit out of luck and will have to hope that at some point Walgreens has it for $25.

Have read that most doctors/clinics recommending no H1N1 for most adults, so there is enough vaccine for youngsters, high risk patients, family members with very young children/infants to care for.

during this time of dealing with health care reform. With FOX and the pigs pushing propaganda that the government wants to kill granny with evil death panels, this is just gonna push the buttons of multitudes who react instead of think.

Look out, there will be a wave of geezers going ballistic because the government is picking on them. Months ratcheting up fear of this flu meets the reality that too many people don't bother to look at the facts and would rather justify their persecution complexes than consider that immunity is something they probably already have.

edited for typo

The best way to protect the elderly is to vaccinate the young first.

Elderly people aren't high risk because they tend not to have a severe reaction to H1N1, likely due to exposure to previous A/H1N1 outbreaks. It's younger people that are inordinately at risk of severe illness from H1N1.

a higher resistance to H1N1 (possible previous exposure to a similar strain?), the best way to protect them from seasonal flu is to vaccinate those around them