Vaccines

More than 38 million doses of vaccine against pandemic H1N1 influenza are now available, 11 million more than were available last week and double the number available two weeks ago, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. Another 8 million doses are expected to arrive next week "if everything goes well," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. "That is progress. . . . As supplies increase, things should go better."

Very few African Americans have used Los Angeles County's free H1N1 vaccine clinics, public health officials told county leaders Tuesday, raising concerns about outreach to a community that, as a group, has a high risk for serious flu complications. Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding, the county's public health director, expressed disappointment in the turnout by blacks but said he did not think the problem was a lack of clinic sites. "Some surveys suggest it's lack of willingness to come forward," Fielding said, "and some of that is historic."

Government medical advisors on Wednesday issued their recommendations for the 2009-10 flu vaccine. For Type A flu, the most serious kind, the Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended no change. Next season's vaccine will protect against the same two Type A strains in circulation now. However, for the milder Type B strain, next year's vaccine will replace a Type B/Florida strain of the virus with a version called Type B/Brisbane.

Re "Shot full of myths," Opinion, May 3 The Times has run two recent Op-Ed articles extolling the wonders of childhood vaccinations and vilifying parents who listen to the "wind" and object to childhood shots for fear that they cause autism. Why don't you invite an objective mouthpiece who has honest, scientifically backed-up arguments that vaccines are not proved safe, that the jury is still out on vaccines causing autism or any of a number of other autoimmune dysfunctions? So many pediatricians have expressed skepticism about vaccines' effectiveness and safety -- but then they might not fill whatever agenda The Times and the drug companies are following.

Cancer vaccines: An article in Monday's Health section about vaccines used to fight cancer stated that the vaccine BiovaxID delayed remission of lymphoma in patients after chemotherapy by more than one year, on average. BiovaxID prolonged -- not delayed -- remission by more than one year.

"Science has become much less cool," journalist Chris Mooney writes in "Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future" (July 2009, Basic Books). Mooney, author of the 2005 bestseller "The Republican War on Science," and his coauthor, Sheril Kirshenbaum, a marine scientist at Duke University, seek to explain how Americans have come to minimize science when, they say, we need it most -- as global warming, advances in genetics and the possibility of climate engineering lie in our future.

Re: "Vaccinate or Risk It? Parents Weigh Choices" [Sept. 14]: Good to see people starting to see the light and making their own decisions on vaccines instead of having blind faith in government guidelines. If the government and pharmaceutical companies ever end their love affair with each other, maybe then can the American public get the truth on the true safety of all vaccines. M. Simonton Chino Hills

Abbott Laboratories said it would pay $6.6 billion for the pharmaceutical business of Belgian chemicals maker Solvay in a move to further expand internationally and add to its product portfolio. By buying Brussels-based Solvay, Abbott gains access to emerging markets in Eastern Europe and Asia along with new therapeutic areas, including hormone therapies and vaccines. Solvay's flu vaccine Influvac will give Abbott an entrant in the burgeoning vaccines market, which is dominated by European pharmaceutical giants such as GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis.

Re "Vaccines to combat drug addiction showing promise," Oct. 6 How nice to know that vaccines are being perfected to help cocaine and nicotine addicts kick their habits. As long as a person wishes to overcome any addiction -- whether "legal" or "illegal" -- I'm all for any medicine that will help him or her. I am wondering how long it will be, however, before a vaccine is discovered to help drug warriors overcome their nasty and expensive habit of incarcerating a huge segment of our population for often harmless and sometimes actually beneficial drugs that they have oddly enough chosen to criminalize?

Feel a fever coming on? Now that flu season is in full swing, people are scrambling for a vaccine. And the rush is even more hectic because of the H1N1 scare. To help with the high demand for vaccines, Google Inc. has launched a flu shot finder at www.google.com/flushot. It provides users with the locations of clinics that provide seasonal and H1N1 vaccines. The site works like Google Maps. Enter a ZIP Code or the name of a city, and the closest sites will pop up. Clinics offering H1N1 shots are blue.