State Health Districts Report Surplus of Flu Vaccines

By Nate Poppino, The Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho

Dec. 6–Officials at the Central District Health Department thought they had planned ahead.

The district — which includes Boise, Mountain Home and McCall — had 1,500 leftover doses of flu vaccine from the 2006-07 winter flu season, and ordered 2,000 less doses for this fall than the year before. But now, with the flu season set to peak in February, officials still have nearly 3,000 unused doses sitting around — far more than they expected by this time, spokesman Dave Fotsch said.

The ability of retail stores to acquire flu vaccines more quickly, combined with manufacturing and shipment problems in the last few years and what appears to be a light flu season, seems to have drawn people away from the shots offered by Idaho’s public health districts. Idaho Department of Health and Welfare spokesman Tom Shanahan said several of the seven districts are reporting lower immunization rates, with one district counting as many as 4,000 doses left.

“We’re not trying to be a sole source or anything, but we’re just worried: are people getting it or not?” Shanahan said Wednesday.

And as far as officials can tell, people are. Bruce Fox, spokesman for the South Central Public Health District, said people seem to be relying more on private companies such as grocery and big-box stores where they can get a shot while shopping. Such stores, especially large chains, often get vaccine shipments much earlier than public agencies. And shipments are plentiful this year: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in November that a record 132 million doses of vaccine could be produced by the end of the flu season.

“(Retail chains have) just got so much buying power and clout that they can go to the manufacturers and come out with a better deal than we can as an independent state agency,” Fox said.

That’s left some health districts reexamining their roles. Both the Twin Falls- and Boise-based districts advertise the vaccines heavily. Fotsch said his district sent nurses with the vaccines on Meals on Wheels stops. South Central Public Health District has stayed fairly on schedule, Fox said, though vaccinations slowed after Thanksgiving. But Central District Health is approaching refugee groups in its area in an effort to use up the vaccine, which can’t be used after this flu season, Fotsch said.

Some Idahoans may not have gotten the shots because the flu season has started out light. But shipping delays that affected the health districts in recent years could have sent more people to private stores as well, Fotsch said. If the trend continues and his district can’t use up the flu vaccine, it may have to buy even smaller amounts in the future.

“That kind of moves the whole process into the private sector, and maybe that’s where it belongs,” Fotsch said. “We have to be good stewards of the public’s money.”

Nate Poppino can be reached at 735-3237 or npoppino@magicvalley.com.

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