H1N1 Vaccine Shortage

A shortage of H1N1 vaccines has many Americans frustrated, especially for the doctors of those with chronic health problems who are most vulnerable. A recent poll indicated that two thirds of parents and high priority adults who tried to get the vaccine in October were unable to.

Some blame the Obama administration. The real problem however is that manufacturers believed they would be able to produce 100 million vaccines by mid October, but by the first week of November, only 35 million vaccines had been produced. The manufacturing bottleneck means that doctors are having to make difficult choices about who gets the vaccine first. To make matters worse, the distribution of the vaccine is also flawed and poorly organized, with state and local governments ordering the vaccine for different cities.

However, according to the CDC, the shortage of vaccines should ease in the coming weeks. The shortage of vaccines has demonstrated the need for improvement in the technology of vaccine production.