According to the CDC website, pregnant women and other high-risk groups should get the H1N1 vaccine as soon as it becomes available in their communities. However, with shortages of the vaccine, and the reluctance of vaccine providers to act as "vaccine police", people who aren't in any high risk group are cutting in line ahead of those most at risk.
The President and the First Lady recently set an example for the rest of the country, after Malia and Sacha were immunized for H1N1, announcing that they would wait their turn for the vaccine. Officials are hoping that the rest of the country will follow suit.
We really are hoping people go on the honor system and let us immunize people in the priority groups. -Southern Nevada Health District spokeswoman Stephanie Bethel
I have Still's Disease, which is a form of Rheumatoid Arthritis. In the past I had painful flare-ups, which are now kept in check with medications that suppress inflammation. Unfortunately, they also suppress my immune system, which makes me more vulnerable to infections of all kinds. In August, my rheumatologist told me to get vaccinated for both seasonal and swine flu. Getting vaccinated for seasonal flu vaccine was no problem; however, getting the H1N1 vaccine as the CDC recommends, means being caught in frustrating referral loop between government health departments and physicians offices, none of whom can tell you where to get vaccinated, as some have commented on this site in recent days.
When I called my family physician, I was told that they had applied for H1N1 vaccine, but didn't know whether they would get any or not. They referred me to the state health department, who referred me to the county health department. The county health department referred me back to my family physician.
High risk groups are listed by the CDC as children, pregnant women, people with people with certain health conditions such as asthma, arthritis or lupus, diabetes, cancer, HIV/AIDS, and heart or kidney disease, and people with compromised immune systems. However, as reported this morning by the AP, people who are not in these high risk groups are getting in line, and are getting H1N1 vaccine, while at-risk groups go unvaccinated. Health officials, eager to get as many people vaccinated as possible, reluctant to act as vaccine police, and afraid of having leftover vaccine are looking the other way as people who are not at risk get the scarce H1N1 vaccine, as Dr. William Schaffner, a flu specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who is on the government panel of doctors who developed the guidelines for vaccine priority groups commented today:
I don't consider it a problem,I consider it more of a problem if vaccine is left unused.
One of the things that was learned was to be careful about turning people away because we might end up with a lot of vaccine at the end of the year. - Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
With the H1N1 having reached pandemic status, the vaccine proving to be slower to produce than original estimates, and still in short suppy, and high-risk groups still unable to get it, having leftover vaccine doesn't seem to be a problem. The supply is increasing, with 25 million doses currently available, but for those in a high-risk group watching H1N1 spread and unable to find any source of vaccine, worrying about leftover vaccine seems to be incredibly out-of-touch with the anxiety and frustration those of us in high-risk groups are experiencing.