Quest for Flu Shots Sends Seniors, Others on an Anxious Search

There was just enough flu vaccine to inoculate 210 people Friday at the Albertsons in Santa Ana, and that left Harmon Ginsburg like the guy who missed the lottery by one digit. He was number 211.

The lanky 83-year-old had driven about 30 miles from Ontario and got into line at 9:15 a.m., 45 minutes before the flu clinic opened. Already, the line stretched out the door, down the side of the store and around the corner. The parking lot was jammed.

Ginsburg was out of luck.

So was a woman in line behind him, hoping somehow that she would luck out. “I should have gotten here at 4 a.m.,” said Irene Bible, 79.

With the nationwide shortage of flu vaccine, long lines had formed all week at clinics throughout Orange County, and Friday the people at Albertsons shared their stories of desperation.

They had checked with their doctors. They had called senior centers. They had checked with the county health department. No one had the vaccine, which is why they were standing in line at, of all places, Albertsons, where shots were being dispensed at $20 apiece.

“The only time I’ve stood in a line like this before was at the DMV,” said Jerry Miller, who despite his credentials as a semiretired urologist, was stuck in line like everyone else.

The situation in Orange County was like everywhere else.

Even people who could be most sickened by the flu had difficulty finding the vaccine.

Maxim Health Systems, a major supplier of vaccine at the sites of large retailers like Albertsons, Costco, Long’s and Walgreen, has canceled its flu shot clinics after today, putting even more pressure on those looking for the vaccine.

Maxim had offered fewer than 200 clinics this year in Orange County, compared to 400 to 500 in previous years, said Chuck Hackett, a company spokesman.

In addition, it has canceled its clinics at corporate locations nationally.

The Orange County Health Care Agency, which last year vaccinated about 58,000 people, has only 6,000 doses available.

They are reserved for children 6 to 23 months old and those under 18 who live with them.

The agency is surveying doctors, medical groups and other healthcare providers to find out how much vaccine is available, said Howard Sutter, an agency spokesman. He said the agency is awaiting word on whether it will receive more vaccine from the state.

Other large healthcare providers also are short. Kaiser Permanente in Orange County, which has identified 78,000 high-risk patients, has received 32,000 doses, said Annie Mansell, the senior project manager for primary care.

“We’re going to pray, just like what everyone else is doing,” she said.

Mansell said she thinks people will start lining up at 4 a.m. today and Sunday for Kaiser’s flu clinics, even though they don’t open until 8:30 a.m.

Mansell said Kaiser will not vaccinate nonmembers, as it has in the past.

Public health officials said it could be six to eight weeks until the state receives more vaccine and creates a system for distributing it.

In response to a nationwide shortage, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to send 22.4 million doses to clinics, doctor’s offices, retirement homes and other medical facilities that can give it directly to high-risk patients.

These include senior citizens, pregnant women, young children and those with weak immune systems.

The shortage was triggered after British regulators suspended the license of a pharmaceutical plant in Liverpool, England, because of manufacturing problems and possible contamination.

The plant, which makes the flu vaccine for Chiron Corp. of Emeryville, Calif., had been expected to supply half the U.S. market by producing 46 million doses.

Since then, the CDC and local health departments have asked health providers to give the vaccine only to high-risk patients.

Until now, doctors who don’t have the vaccine have urged patients to go to the retail stores to get shots.

But with most of these clinics closing, health officials said that high-risk patients who need the vaccine would have to wait until more of it is shipped to California.

The CDC struck a deal with Aventis Pasteur, the other main manufacturer of the flu vaccine, to distribute what’s left to health professionals.

Jonathan E. Fielding, the Los Angeles County public health director, said it could be a month or more before the vaccine starts arriving.

At the Santa Ana Albertsons, the vaccination line was made up mostly of the elderly, some with wheelchairs, walkers and canes. Store employees passed out cookies, water and orange juice and brought out chairs.

Darlene Northcott, an assistant manager, said Albertsons had received 400 calls about the vaccine in the past two days.

Sixty-five-year-old John Ellison -- number 115 -- who has lung cancer, said that after driving by the store and seeing the line at 7 a.m., he returned home to get his oxygen tank for the long wait.

Raymond Fox, 79, had rushed over from his volunteer position at Fairview Development Center in Costa Mesa.

He didn’t rush fast enough, though, arriving at the Albertsons at 10:45 a.m., and out of the running.

“I’m depressed and disgusted,” he said.

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Times staff writers Wendy Thermos, Catherine Saillant and Jonathan Peterson contributed to this report.