By Manny Frishberg, JTNews Correspondent
Some Seattleites who witnessed the last global flu pandemic in 1918 are worrying now about whether they will be able to avoid the disease this winter. Those who can still recall the last time influenza killed tens of millions of people are now nearing 90 years old, but many more are concerned that even a relatively mild form of the disease could put them in danger this time around.
Since the government announced that one of the two vaccine makers licensed to produce the immunizations had a contamination problem and could not provide their share of the orders, people throughout the country have been scrambling to find a source of vaccine, even for the most vulnerable populations – those over 65, very young children, and people with troubled immune system such as AIDS patients or organ transplant recipients, who must take anti-rejection drugs that lower the body’s immune response.
Dov Sugarman, the Chief Operating Officer of the Kline Galland home in Seattle, said on November 4 that their elderly care facilities have yet to receive the vaccine, even though they are a priority site.
"At this point, we do not have vaccine on the site. The institutionalized aged have been prioritized but we haven’t seen any vaccine yet," he said. "We’re continuing to work as hard as we can to find some."
Sugarman said their usual provider has been unable to get them the vaccine they need to innoculate some 200-400 older residents and clients, and up to 200 staff members. He emphasized that he was giving a rough estimate of their needs.
"We’re going to get some," he said, repeating the assurances that he has been given. "We think we will, at least for our residents – not necessarily for staff. We’ve been told by our pharmacy and our vaccine provider that we will be getting something, but we don’t have any firm dates yet."
He said under normal circumstances the people who chose to be immunized would have already received their shots.
Workers whose jobs bring them in regular contact with the residents normally receive the shots as a back-up protection for the people they serve.
Susan Carpenter, the administrator of the Summit at First Hill, said she has been told to expect vaccine for her residents in the next week.
"It’s probably a delay of about two to three weeks, but we’ll be getting them in," said Carpenter. "Fortunately our residents won’t have to go stand in line at the Bartell’s of the world." She said they receive their supplies through Kline Galland "and then they bring it over."
Sugarman said that from what he has heard, the situation at Kline Galland is similar to what other agencies in the area are experiencing.
"We use a pharmacy which is really the largest institutional pharmacy around, a member of the largest institutional pharmacy in the country," he said. "If they’re having trouble, everybody is. I haven’t heard of anybody with radically different experience than ours. Our trade association, WAHSA [Washington Association for Housing and Services for the Aged] is out there trying to work with us. But I haven’t heard them say, Oh, wow, good news. This facility got everything.’"
Sugarman said he has been told to expect a supply of vaccine from Group Health Cooperative for its members among the agency’s clients. He said that would amount to about one in four of the residents in their care. That shipment was due sometime in the second week of November. Beyond that, he said he expects to get additional vaccine shipments at some point but he did not have any commitments on a date for them to arrive.
Carpenter said she did not expect the price of the vaccine supplies to become an issue for them.
"For residents, say if they’re Group Health, it’s all done through Medicare, so they’re not paying out of pocket anyway," she said. "If they go stand in line somewhere, a lot of places charge $10 -$20, but if they go their doctor’s office or Group Health, or whatever, there’s usually not a charge there."
While Sugarman said he fully expects to receive vaccines for his clients eventually, he could not say whether they would come in time to do much good or not.
"We don’t know if, when it comes, it will be too late for the season," he said. "I don’t know what too late is. It lasts pretty much through the winter. I don’t know if January or February would be too late or if it would still have a positive enough impact that you go ahead and do it," said Sugarman. "It’s a very safe vaccine to administer. There’s no known side-effects or danger that way."
Sugarman made no effort to minimize the seriousness of the situation for the people living at Kline Galland. He said they are doing what they can to protect the residents under the circumstances.
"We really believe in the vaccine’s ability to protect our residents. Winters are tough in this business, anyway. Residents are vulnerable to upper respiratory infections in general, so we consider this quite a significant event," he said. "We’re doing what we can to protect our residents from exposure.
"We’re taking whatever efforts we think we need to, right now, in terms of protecting our residents – additional staff education and visitor education, extra hygiene and all that. We’re asking staff that aren’t feeling well and are having any symptoms to go home and not to come to work, much more strictly and rigidly than we might under normal operating circumstances."
Sugarman said they are currently considering whether they should "limit the number of volunteer groups coming into the facility at this point."
That would be a difficult trade-off because the volunteers contribute much to the quality of life at the center, which needs to be weighed against the added risk of infections spreading from them to the residents.
Beverly Conrad, of Jewish Family Services’ Senior Services program, said she believes the shortage has had some impact on the people her agency serves.
"I’m sure that there has been an impact but I couldn’t say with any kind of accuracy what that might have been because I don’t have any direct knowledge of it," she said. "I do know that we had one client in the Senior Services program who was calling around, asking us to try and find a flu shot for her, which we were unsuccessful in doing."
The people who Conrad said would have that information were unavailable for comment.