Flu season is coming, but NewBridge on the Charles resident Mimi Cerier has it covered – after some scrambling.
The 78-year-old said she and her husband planned to get their seasonal flu shots in mid-October, but then found out that their doctor’s small Waltham practice ran out of vaccines. She tried CVS, and learned she had just missed a clinic the day before, with another projected for some time in November.
She called the Dedham Board of Health, and was told she had missed its clinic, too, by one day. But Cerier explained that her husband had asthma and really needed a shot, and the health staffer said they did have some extra doses in the office.
“We got it, and it’s really a blessing,” Cerier said.
With shortages common – owing to what the state says is “unprecedented” demand for the seasonal flu vaccine, and manufacturing and delivery delays caused by the concurrent production of a vaccine for the H1N1 virus – preparing for the flu is complicated this year. But Dedham seniors say they are ready.
NewBridge resident Ellie Levine said her doctor vaccinated her, as usual, but “they had to scrounge to find me a shot. They had just a few shots left, and they were lucky enough to find one to get (me) one.”
The elderly are most affected by the seasonal flu, but Levine, who always gets her shot, said “whether it’s genetic or luck, I’ve been very lucky, and I have not had the flu in recent years.”
“I don’t give it a thought, frankly,” she said of the flu.
But she does take her health care very seriously, and said that getting a flu shot is “part of a gestalt of being aware of trying to stay healthy,” from using the exercise machines regularly, to doing yoga and tai chi, to joining a book club, to taking a class on the history of Dedham.
Lisa Graves, Hebrew SeniorLife’s program manager for infection control, said almost all of the elders the nonprofit organization cares for do get vaccinated. But the focus is on staff members, as they and visitors tend to bring the flu to residents.
“We take vaccination very seriously, because we have a long-term care population, and they are extremely vulnerable to seasonal influenza and its complications,” Graves said.
To make things easier, a rolling cart goes shift to shift, unit to unit, or to departmental meetings.
“Wherever we know where people are, we’ll show up and say, ‘Hey, here we are for your flu vaccine,’” Graves said.
Thanks partly to its “Get V’ed” campaign, Hebrew SeniorLife had 84 percent of its employees vaccinated last year. The campaign, which emphasizes that getting flu protection is the socially responsible thing to do, features four short videos that counteract common myths about the flu – such as the mistaken belief that you can get the illness from the vaccine.
The videos have been picked up by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and can be viewed online at www.mass.gov/flu or www.hebrewseniorlife.org/infectioncontrol.
But this year Hebrew SeniorLife has had supply problems, too. Graves said that the nonprofit gave almost 900 vaccines to staff members before running out of its first batch.
“And that’s really hard for us, because we do such a big campaign,” she said.
Giving some idea of the demand, the state Department of Public Health has received and distributed just over 630,000 doses of seasonal flu vaccine, or about 71 percent of its total order for the year, Commissioner John Auerbach said recently. The department usually orders about 30 percent of the vaccine in the state.
The town of Dedham essentially used up its vaccine supply at a clinic serving about 250 seniors Oct. 19, and does not expect to receive the remaining large portion of its shipment until the end of November.
At Traditions of Dedham, 85-year-old Eugene McSweeney Jr. said he usually gets vaccinated through the Navy Reserve – but hasn’t yet this season.
“They’re out of stock of it now. It’s tough to get the flu shot,” said McSweeney, who had a bit of a cold, his voice gravelly.
Traditions resident Mary Howley said she has received her seasonal flu shot, but has her doubts about a swine flu vaccine. “Your body is new to this swine flu. So how your body’s going to react to that, you don’t know,” she said.
Back at NewBridge, Hanna Zeiger said she and her husband have already gotten their seasonal flu shots – and will get vaccinated against H1N1 when it becomes available.
“We do count on getting that flu shot in the fall, and hope that it will ease anything that comes along,” said Zeiger, who is in her late 70s. “Now with this swine flu inoculation, we’re just standing back and waiting until the children and the young people get theirs. And I imagine that eventually there’d be enough for older people too.”
Dedham Transcript staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.
