Want the swine flu vaccine? Don't call your doctor - at least not yet.
Anne Brassington tried her pediatrician, allergist, pharmacy chains, pharmacies' central offices, the state, and the Internet. The Montgomery County Health Department actually called her back on Tuesday with an appointment, but a friend had already told her she could walk into a stand-alone Premier urgent-care center in Exton with her 5-year-old son.
Two squirts to each nostril, $38 cash (half of it to reserve a second dose next month), and 10 minutes later, they were done. The retail clinic had prepared for a deluge, but more than seven hours after opening, Brassington was the first to ask for the vaccine.
Yet the Camden County Health Department has no vaccine and is getting 150 calls a day. The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania requested 87,000 doses for its highest-risk inpatients, health-care workers, and pediatric, primary-care, ob/gyn and specialty practices.
They expect the first shipment soon. But they don't really know - and that is frustrating patients and providers alike.
"We are scheduling now for November and if the vaccine isn't delivered it will set up a lot of havoc in our office," said Janet Crino, a partner in a Philadelphia practice that is planning vaccine "clinics" of 30 or so children at a time. They have 7,000 patients and may put their staff on overtime to handle the load.
The federal government has bought an unprecedented 200 million doses of vaccine from five manufacturers. It's all happening so fast, and distribution is so fragmented - the federal government paid for the vaccine, the states and major cities decided which providers would get it, manufacturers are shipping directly to providers - that accurate updates are hard to come by, at least for now.
"Nobody has any idea who is getting what when," said Cheryl Slavinsky, director of public relations for Rite Aid, which yesterday had vaccine at two stores in Oregon - out of 4,800 nationwide.
She did not know whether or when any would reach stores in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. And availability probably won't be posted on Rite Aid's Web site unless large amounts of vaccine are delivered.
"Otherwise, by the time it gets posted, it will be gone," Slavinsky said.
Adding to the confusion: Some doctors have decided not to offer the vaccine, and others, unsure when or if it will arrive, have told their patients to look elsewhere.
Public-health officials at all levels express confidence that significant amounts of vaccine will be shipped by the end of October, with enough for everyone who wants it over the next several months.
Meanwhile, laboratory-confirmed samples of swine flu doubled in the extended Philadelphia region, last week, according to SDI Health L.L.C. of Plymouth Meeting, which tracks health-care statistics. That would be typical of seasonal flu in midwinter, although some cities in the Southwest currently have much more.
Kirsten Eyles spent much of two days trying to find vaccine before hearing about Premier, which began dispensing 1,000 doses of swine FluMist at each of its urgent-care clinics in Exton, Oaks, and Douglassville, Pa. It hopes to eventually get vaccine at its Cherry Hill location as well.
Eyles quickly told her friend Anne Brassington about it - they both live in Trappe - and then took her 6-year-old daughter, Thalia, to Oaks on Tuesday afternoon.
"I'd rather keep my kids from getting sick than give them Tamiflu," Eyles explained.
Contact staff writer Don Sapatkin at 215-854-2617 or dsapatkin@phillynews.com.
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