Tennessee has now ordered a million doses of the H1N1 vaccine since it began inoculating the public against the virus in October.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about a dozen states have received that much vaccine. In the southeast, only two other states crossed the million-dose mark: Florida and North Carolina.
Dr. Kelly Moore runs Tennessee’s Immunization Program and is the point person for ordering and distributing the vaccine across the state.
“We push our vaccine out as quickly as it comes in the door. But we just can’t keep up with demand yet. It’s just come out much, much more slowly than we thought it would and than we had hoped.”
Moore says population is the key factor in determining how much vaccine goes to a health provider, and keeping up what they need and what’s available can get complicated.
“We’re currently dealing with four different manufacturers and eight different formulations and we have to order each of those separately. You can’t mix them up because one kind might only be for kids under three while other kinds might be for people four older. So, you can’t mix and match. You have to make sure you get the right vaccine to the right people.”
Tennessee’s Department of Health is the sole distributor of the H1N1 vaccine for health care providers here.
Dr. Moore also says she doesn’t know the exact amount of H1N1 vaccine Tennessee will receive, only that she’ll continue to order it as long as there is demand.
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