Wednesday, August 19, 2009
“Northern hemisphere countries have so far ordered more than one billion doses of swine flu vaccine, the World Health Organisation said Tuesday, sparking warnings over shortages,” Agence France-Presse reports. While some countries, including Greece, The Netherlands, Canada and Israel, have ordered enough vaccine to inoculate their citizens, “[o]thers, such as Germany, the United States, Britain and France, have put in orders that would cover between 30 and 78 percent of people,” the news service writes.
“In the early days, there will be a very limited supply of vaccine. There won’t be sufficient supply to vaccinate whole populations, or even huge proportions of populations,” WHO spokeswoman Melinda Henry explained, which, in turn, will force governments to prioritize those first in line for the vaccine. As Henry noted, it remains unclear whether the H1N1 vaccine will be delivered in one or two doses to be effective (Hood, 8/18).