Yellow Pages
Two-year-old Hunter Mayville couldn’t keep his eyes off the nurse Tuesday afternoon as she brought the needle near his leg.
Soon after the needle was discarded, Hunter’s curiosity and skepticism melted into tears.
The H1N1 vaccination clinic at The Learning Ladder in Mount Vernon was just one of several the Skagit County Health Department is holding at day cares across the county. Hunter’s grandparents, Vickie and Bill Sherwood, said they signed Hunter up for a shot once the notice came home.
After the day cares, the Health Department was to bring its traveling H1N1 flu-shot clinic to the county’s public schools. But that plan is on hold due to lower-than-expected shipments.
“I don’t know if we’re ever going to do this in schools,” said Sandi Paciotti, communicable disease manager for the Health Department.
Paciotti said Skagit County had been expecting larger shipments of the vaccine coming in each week, but so far the new batches have been far too small to serve the 20,000 kids in schools.
“We get 1,000 to 2,000 doses into Skagit County a week,” Paciotti said. “We divide that between the health district, the hospitals, pharmacists and doctors. That’s not a lot.”
Skagit County has vaccinated 8,613 people since the H1N1 vaccine became available Oct. 12. Among those, 20 percent or more have come from outside the county.
The department had been planning since this summer to bring the H1N1, or swine flu, vaccine into the schools to reach the large population of children, who are among the most vulnerable for complications from the virus.
But a month into the vaccination process, the department is changing direction.
Paciotti said the department instead will bring clinics for the general public to senior centers in Mount Vernon, Burlington, Anacortes, Sedro-Woolley and Concrete Nov. 30 to Dec. 3 and is planning a mass clinic for anyone at Burlington High School on Dec. 12. But that clinic, still a month out, could be downsized or even canceled if supplies don’t increase.
“We’re certainly not going to go to a mass vaccination clinic with 100 doses. We need to have thousands,” Paciotti said.
Health Director Peter Browning said the county is still willing to head into schools, but there’s been no indication that supplies will change.
“They keep saying it’s ramping up, but we haven’t seen that absolutely yet,” Browning said.
He said heading into the schools requires a lot of paperwork, parent signatures and organization. Without enough doses of the vaccine, the department would need to return to the schools multiple times and do the same paperwork each time.
Parents shouldn’t hold their breath.
“Don’t wait for a school clinic, because we don’t know when or if we’ll ever have enough doses to hold the clinics,” Paciotti said.
Upcoming flu clinics
Nov. 30
Burlington Senior Center, 9 a.m. to noon
Dec. 1
Anacortes Senior Center, 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Sedro-Woolley Senior Center, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Dec. 2
Mount Vernon Senior Center, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Dec. 3
Concrete Senior Center, 9 a.m. to noon
Dec. 12
Burlington High School, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., dependent on supply
Clinics will be open to the general public.
