If you were planning to get a flu shot you may have to wait, or go somewhere else that has it. Recently the CDC sent out a letter saying there is a shortage of the flu vaccine.
Short supply
"We're down to trying to scrap for it," said Dr. Sean Campbell with Pediatric Care of York. The office has flu shots, but building up a supply of it has been challenging.
"We're doing all of the children that come in for well visits. We used to have these flu clinics where we would do 400 to 600 shots in an afternoon. That's what we used to do, but we don't have the supply to do that yet," said Campbell.
"I'm cancelling 337 clinics this week nationwide," said Doreen Scarfino, President of YourFluNurse.com, LLC. Scarfino sends nurses all over the country to vaccinate people at corporations and schools. "Everybody is worried. Because of the Rhinovirus, and Enterovirus, which hit the Midwest with children, and there's Ebola. People are scared and so they want their shots," said Scarfino.
Enough to go around
Not everyone has been affected by the shortage. Larger pharmacies and retailers like Walgreens and Patient First have plenty of the flu vaccine to go around.
"We actually have 54 locations in three states. We're not showing shortages anywhere," said Richard Weinstein, Medical Director and Physician with Patient First.
"I think it's their buying power, and the volume. When you're selling to someone, you're going to sell to someone who buys 100,000 doses rather than somebody who might buy 3,000," said Dr. Campbell. "It's frustrating."
Statement from GlaxoSmithKline:
FOX43 reached out to GlaxoSmithKline, a provider of the flu vaccine. A representative sent this statement: "We will distribute in excess of 25 million doses to the U.S. market this flu season, and already have shipped about 80 percent of that supply. We have experienced some delays primarily due to some batches of vaccine not meeting our internal quality-assurance standards during manufacturing. When this happens, we discard the batch and start over. Vaccines manufacturing and distribution is an inherently complex undertaking. High inspection standards insure the quality of all vaccines we make available to patients," said Robert Perry, director of external communications for GlaxoSmithKline.
