After weeks of delayed shipments and rationed vaccinations, Yale will inoculate students for swine flu at two clinics Wednesday and Thursday, University Health Services announced Monday.
The University received 1,500 doses of swine flu vaccine from the Connecticut Department of Public Health Monday, YUHS Director Paul Genecin said Monday. While 300 doses were reserved for students in high-risk groups — which include students with asthma, diabetes and other conditions — any student can register online for the vaccination clinics, Genecin said.
Three hours after the YUHS announcement, online registration for the clinics closed after all vaccines were claimed. The registration Web site buckled under the surge of traffic, hindering some students who tried to access it.
Genecin said he was unsure when YUHS will receive more shipments of the vaccine but added that Yale has received far fewer vaccines that it had requested.
Both clinics will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday’s clinic will be held at YUHS, and Thursday’s clinic will be held at Payne Whitney Gymnasium.
Although President Barack Obama declared swine flu a national emergency on Oct. 24, vaccine production has continued to lag behind expectations. The Centers for Disease Control announced Friday that swine flu vaccine availability would fall short by two million doses this week because of production problems at one vaccine manufacturer. Health directors at three Ivy League schools said they face swine flu vaccine shortages because state governments have received fewer vaccines from the federal government than expected.
The Daily Pennsylvanian reported Monday that the University of Pennsylvania has vaccinated at least 3,000 students for swine flu. But Brown University has yet to receive any vaccines, Lynn Dupont, the associate director of Brown University Health Services, said. Dupont added that Brown expected to receive a shipment by early December.
The Daily Princetonian reported Friday that Princeton University Health Services planned to vaccinate 2,000 high-risk students at a clinic Monday, in addition to the roughly 400 students and children they had already vaccinated.
Dartmouth College has vaccinated 527 students and 111 health services employees, John Turco, the director of Dartmouth College Health Services, said. While Dartmouth wanted to vaccinate high-risk children ages 2 to 5, Turco said, it initially received nasal spray vaccines, which are unsuitable for children with certain conditions because they contain live viruses. Dartmouth instead used the doses to vaccinate its health service employees, Turco said.
While government officials in New Jersey, New Hampshire and New York said they had received fewer vaccines than requested from the federal government, there was no shortage of vaccines. They said they expected more vaccines to arrive soon from the federal government.
“Of course we’d like more, but we’re getting the same proportion as every other state,” Nicola Whitley, a spokeswoman for the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, said.
Jeffrey Hammond, a spokesman for the New York State Department of Health, said his state had not received all of the vaccinations it had requested, but added that vaccinations were arriving in stages.
As of Nov. 13, the federal government had shipped nearly 37 million doses of swine flu vaccines to state distributors.