Drug Stores and Supermarkets Get First Shot at Flu Vaccine Supplies
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There is plenty of flu vaccine to go around this year, but comparatively few doses have arrived yet in primary-care physicians’ offices.
Many of the early shipments of vaccine have gone instead to big drug store and supermarket chains that are offering flu shot clinics.
The problem isn’t that there are too few vaccine doses to distribute to both retailers and physicians, said Larry S. Fields, M.D., of Ashland, Kan., who is president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. The problem is preferential treatment.
“Large purchasers like big volume drug stores have contracts with the flu manufacturers that require delivery by a certain date,” Dr. Fields said. “They’re ordering with volumes and penalties to the manufacturer. All the vaccine is going to these large purchasers and it’s not going to individual physicians. Hospitals probably fall somewhere in between.”
The CDC said it is working with manufacturers to “have equitable distribution across the country to reach those who are at highest risk.” It appears that the distributors are a month to six weeks behind schedule in getting flu vaccine to public health clinics and doctors’ offices, said the CDC.
“We realize there’s some frustration with this,” said a CDC spokesman. By the end of this month, 45 million doses are to be distributed around the country, and “a lot of that will be to the health departments and others,” he said.
A survey by the National Association of County & City Health Officials confirmed that the retailers are getting their shipments first.
The group would not release details, but it said that some key local health departments in large states, including California, have only received partial shipments from major manufactures such as Sanofi and Chiron. Health departments told the group they may not receive shipments until late November, weeks into the flu season.
Meanwhile, major drug and grocery store retailers such as CVS, Walgreens, and Safeway have already opened their flu shot clinics with adequate supplies on hand. Maxim Health Systems, the nation’s largest provider of flu shots, said it is sufficiently stocked to operate its clinics in retail stores.
Dr. Fields said this isn’t the first year this has happened and that the problem crops up periodically.
Retailers getting a first shot at the vaccine has forced some physicians to send patients to their local drugstore or grocery store instead.
“Is it an inefficient system? Yes.” Dr. Fields said. “Is it a waste of the patient’s time? Yes. Is it a maldistribution of resources that could be distributed in a different way? Yes. The distributors aren’t getting the vaccine to the people who need it, who know how to best use it.”
He added that physicians aren’t in competition with retail chains because the bottom line is to get the patient immunized “regardless of where they get it.”
The CDC recommends only high-risk patients be given flu shots before Oct. 24. After Oct. 24, all healthy adults and children should get inoculated.
Flu claims approximately 36,000 lives every year, mostly elderly patients, according to the CDC. The CDC has said that unlike last year, there should be adequate flu shot supplies for the upcoming flu season. Between 71 million and 97 million doses are expected to be available in the U.S.
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