Health Officials Say Only a Third of Planned Doses Will Be Ready by Mid-October
Government health officials said on Monday that the United States will have barely more than a third of the 120 million doses of swine flu they hoped would be available by mid-October,. That's far less than the 160 million doses they originally predicted in July.
Bill Hall, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said that despite the projection that only 45 million doses will be available at the start of the mass vaccination campaign scheduled to start in October, there would still be enough vaccine available to achieve the primary goal of vaccinating the groups most in need, including pregnant women; children under four years old and public health workers. . "Our priority groups for vaccination have not changed," he said. "We still have enough vaccine to cover the priority groups identified."