Throngs Seek Flu Shots Amid Fears

Clinics, pharmacies and doctor’s offices across Southern California were thronged with people seeking flu shots Wednesday amid fears of a threatened national vaccine shortage.

Dozens of people -- many of them old -- formed lines at drugstores, hoping to get inoculated before the flu season starts in December. At the same time, officials urged health providers to give shots only to the elderly, young children and others at high risk of getting sick.

A day after federal officials announced that half the nation’s flu vaccines would not be delivered this season, local health agencies said they had only a fraction of the doses they had last year and expressed skepticism about getting much more as the flu season approaches.

L.A. County’s healthcare agency, which provides shots to people who can’t afford them, has 21,000 doses on hand; last year it gave out 130,000. Riverside and Ventura county officials have no vaccines stockpiled.

Some private doctors, pharmacies and clinics do have bigger caches, and officials were urging them to ration those doses to the highest-risk patients and give extra supplies to other doctors who need them.

Some complied, including San Bernardino County physician Ronald Bangasser, who gave 1,000 of his 25,000 doses to Redlands Community Hospital and directed doctors in his medical group to be strict about administering the drug.

His group had hoped to vaccinate all patients older than 50, but will now do so for only those older than 65, as emergency federal guidelines written in response to the feared shortage recommend.

“There will be time lost at school or work, but these other people are not at high risk of dying,” said Bangasser, who also heads the California Adult Immunization Coalition.

Other doctors continued to give shots to whoever asked, doubting that the shortage would be as severe as health officials predicted.

“I don’t anticipate, in our practice, having to turn anyone away at this point,” said Dr. Kenneth Keer in Tarzana.

Meanwhile, flu shot providers across the Southland faced large crowds much of Wednesday.

In San Pedro, about 40 people were waiting at a Vons, with some standing in line more than 90 minutes for a shot. At a Rite Aid pharmacy in South Pasadena, more than 50 people lined up for a four-hour vaccination clinic. Callers to the store were advised that only those older than 65 or with serious chronic illness would be accepted.

“You’d better hurry up, because the line’s getting longer by the minute, and we close at 6 p.m.,” the store manager said.

The scene was much the same at the Longs drugstore in Port Hueneme, where more than 100 people, mostly gray-haired, snaked through the aisles for their chance at a vaccination.

Marian Yablon, 84, waited in line three hours before finally making it to the front. After paying $20, she got one of the 200 doses available for that day.

“I feel relieved,” the Oxnard resident said. “I’m going on a couple of cruises this winter, and I didn’t want to worry about getting sick.”

Near the back of the line, though, the mood was testier. About two hours into the four-hour clinic, store managers informed those still queuing up that they might not get a shot before the clinic closed at 2 p.m. because the line was moving slowly. Several groused aloud.

“It’s going to get uglier, believe me,” said Jess Espinoza, 56, who was hoping to get a shot for himself and his 48-year-old wife, who has respiratory problems.

The threatened shortage stems from the decision of British regulators to suspend the license of a pharmaceutical plant in Liverpool because of manufacturing problems and possible contamination. The plant makes flu vaccines for Chiron Corp. of Emeryville, Calif., and was expected to produce 46 million doses for the U.S. market.

Federal authorities said Wednesday that they were trying to ease the shortage. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson said an additional 1 million doses were available from the other flu vaccine maker, the French firm Aventis Pasteur. But it is unlikely that the company can produce more vaccine before the end of the flu season in the spring.

Six scientists from the Food and Drug Administration, Thompson added, were flying to England to inspect the Chiron plant in hopes it could clear some of the supply for use in the United States. Each year, more than 200,000 Americans are hospitalized and more than 36,000 Americans die from flu-related illnesses, 95% of them seniors.

In Los Angeles County, health officials spent Wednesday trying to develop a plan under which county and private providers could pool enough medicine to vaccinate the majority of the estimated 2.8 million people at high risk for the flu. The vast majority of such shots are administered by private providers.

“We don’t have any enforcement of privately owned vaccine,” said Jonathan Fielding, the county’s public health director. “My hope would be that physicians would be in contact with others who might have ordered from Chiron ... and would be willing to share.”

His agency sent out letters Wednesday to pharmacies to reserve the flu vaccine for those at highest risk, and it has placed numerous calls to the state and retailers who sell the vaccine.

Fielding said the county was also trying to locate antiviral pills, which can be taken after exposure to try to lessen the flu’s severity. In addition, the county Department of Health Services will make posters urging people to wash their hands to prevent the spread of germs and stay home if they think they are sick.

Much will depend on how severe this flu season becomes.

If it is bad, Fielding said, “we might have to recommend the closure of schools, depending on the circumstances. These are traditional public health measures.... We may never have to recommend that.”

One major concern is that more flu cases will overwhelm hospital emergency rooms, which already jam up during the height of the flu season.

Frederick Carr, ER director at Torrance’s Little Company of Mary Hospital, said he thought the worst when he heard on the radio Tuesday morning about the feared shortage. Last year, when there was a run on flu vaccines, the hospital saw 75 more patients a day than usual, pushing up emergency room waits to three hours from 30 minutes.

Samuel Fink, an internist who practices in the San Fernando Valley, gave out 220 flu shots last year. This year, he has none, because he ordered his batch from Chiron. Patients have been calling, but Fink said he didn’t know what to tell them. He has talked to colleagues in the area and cannot find anyone with flu vaccine.

Fink is concerned over a possibly heavy flu season in a year in which six Los Angeles County emergency rooms have closed because of financial problems.

“Where will patients go?” he asked. “There are fewer ERs. There will be less capacity in L.A. County this year than last year.”

Officials are particularly concerned about nursing homes and retirement communities, where one flu case can quickly spread the illness among residents who are most vulnerable.

At the Wilshire Retirement Center in Los Angeles, activities director Sharon Hinton spent the morning calling insurers, doctors and the home health service that usually provides flu shots to the 48 residents.

“My home health agency said they are canceling our flu clinic and they are suggesting we refer residents to their private physicians,” Hinton said. “We are putting on a brave front, but everyone’s scared.”

She said the staff had identified five residents most in need of vaccinations and is calling the family of each to ensure they find other arrangements for a shot.

In Torrance, Sang Kim spent the day canceling hundreds of appointments. His firm, Onsite Wellness, had expected to give out more than 10,000 flu shots at businesses and supermarkets across Southern California in coming months. But at present, he has only 400 doses.

For now, county health agencies are trying to prevent any panic while trying to secure as much vaccine as possible. Ventura County was hoping to receive 16,000 doses but has none. Riverside County officials need 25,000 but also have none. Orange County was expecting 50,000 doses but has only 6,000.

Officials are urging people who stand the biggest chance of developing complications from the flu because of weaker immune systems -- those over 65, children from 6 to 23 months old, people with chronic diseases, healthcare workers -- to get a shot immediately. Healthy adults and older children, they said, should wait.

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Times staff writers Denise Gellene and Jennifer Mena contributed to this report.