Flu Vaccine Still Important

Health officials kick off national "Vaccination Week" to spur public interest in swine flu vaccine.

NBC Nightly News (1/11, story 8, 0:20, Williams) reported, "Remember the high anxiety earlier this winter about having enough swine flu vaccine to go around? Now there's so much out there, 136 million doses, that public health officials worried about complacency are kicking off a campaign to convince everybody to get a swine flu shot." The Los Angeles Times (1/12, Malcolm) "Top of the Ticket" blog reports, "President Obama has issued a presidential proclamation declaring this entire week as National Influenza Vaccination Week, inviting all Americans who have not already done so to take a needle in the arm or a dose up the nose."
The AP (1/12, Neergaard) reports that federal health officials will be using this week to attempt to "rekindle interest in protection" and "reassess just how much more vaccine needs to be shipped." Although other countries have already begun reducing orders unloading their excess supplies, "US officials say they're deliberately delaying that decision." Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told the Associated Press that the government was exercising caution in "turning off the spigot before we really know what the winter flu season looks like," adding "as long as there is demand, the good news is we will have a supply." An op-ed from assistant Surgeon General Clara H. Cobb promoting the importance of receiving the vaccine also continued to circulate yesterday, appearing in the Miami Herald (1/12).