The Student Wellness Center is still waiting for shipments of 35,000 H1N1 flu vaccinations expected to be delivered and available to students in mid-October.
“Part of the problem is we don’t have any information on when we will receive the vaccines,” said Tech spokeswoman Sally Post. “We will apparently know when we get the vaccines when they arrive and nothing before.”
Arleen Porcell-Pharr, of the Centers for Disease Control, said about 1.2 million vaccines were shipped to Texas on Oct. 30, but not all have been distributed yet. Texas had one of the largest amounts of vaccines shipped, second only to California, which received about 2 million.
“The vaccine is available through the government but is still mostly state and locally run,” she said. “We have project areas that we are trying to target first.”
According to the Department of State Health Services, the H1N1 vaccine is arriving in low quantities initially and is being targeted to children and pregnant women. As the weekly supply increases, more priority groups will be targeted, followed by availability for non-priority groups.
“This week more vaccines should be coming in, but they are not available in mass numbers in the Lubbock area yet,” a DSHS spokeswoman said.
Lubbock has received vaccines for some local clinics, but in small numbers. Until the major shipments arrive, Tech will not receive any vaccines.
“We are still waiting on information from the Health Department,” said Juli McCauley, Student Health Services Clinical Department administrator. “We will post the update when we get one on the Tech Web site. There is a link box on the main page with more information.”
