Many doctors' offices across the Los Angeles area are fielding frantic calls this week from patients demanding the swine flu vaccine, only to be told that none is available despite urgent warnings from the federal government that people need to be inoculated.
Patients report calling numerous doctors in hopes of getting flu vaccines for children -- who, in general, are hardest hit by the swine flu.
Some even plan to attend Los Angeles County flu shot clinics, which begin today in Encino and Culver City, that are intended for the uninsured, because they say it is their only hope of getting the vaccine soon.
The shortage has come as the flu is surging in California. On Thursday, state health officer Dr. Mark Horton said that the level of flu in the state is consistent with the peak of a regular flu season, and that the predominant strain is the H1N1 strain. Hospitalizations for the flu are also increasing.
Horton said that he understood the frustration of doctors, but that he remained confident that enough vaccine would eventually become available. Health officials have also noted that the flu remains relatively mild and that the vast majority of people who get it recover within two weeks.
California has received 1.7 million doses of H1N1 vaccine so far out of 20 million doses expected this season.
Some pediatricians said they were being inundated with sick children, and some doctors were unhappy about the lack of vaccine.
"It has been an abomination," said Dr. Marcy Zwelling, who practices in Los Alamitos. Zwelling ran out of seasonal flu shots in late September -- and was told that it was unclear when she would get more because manufacturers were switching to making swine flu vaccine. But she said she had not received any swine flu vaccine, either. Nearby Los Alamitos Medical Center has neither vaccine.
"This is certainly horrific," Zwelling said. "So we have nothing. Nothing."
Patients expressed particular worry about young children and pregnant women, who are among the most susceptible to severe and sometimes fatal complications from swine flu.
Daniel Hinerfeld, 46, who lives on the Westside, has been searching for a swine flu vaccine for his 19-month-old daughter, Willa.
"We are finding that pediatricians basically have no information whatsoever about when they're getting the vaccine," Hinerfeld said.
