# 3625
A little less than a month ago, the headlines out of the UK proclaimed that vaccine orders were on schedule, that vaccinations would begin in August, and that the plan was to have enough vaccine to inoculate half of Great Britain by the end of the year.
See July 15th blog UK: Assurances That The Swine Flu Jab Will `Arrive On Time’
Today we learn that vaccinations now `should begin’ in October, and due to lower-than-expected vaccine production yields from Baxter, International the quantity of vaccine expected at that time will be less than originally hoped for.
Accordingly, public health officials have drawn up a list of `priority groups’ who will be first in line for the vaccine. In what comes as a bit of a surprise, healthy children are not among those in the priority list.
This from The Telegraph.
Healthy children and over 65s are not swine flu vaccine priority
Healthy children and pensioners will not be among the first groups to be vaccinated against swine flu, Government officials have announced.
By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor
Published: 10:00PM BST 13 Aug 2009The first vaccinations will begin in Britain in October and first in line will be the 4.77million people aged between six months and 65-years who have underlying health conditions.
They will be followed by pregnant women, people who live with patients with compromised immune systems such as those with leukaemia and then people aged over 65 with underlying health conditions like heart disease. Some 2.1 million frontline health and social care workers will be vaccinated at the same time.
A total of 11.45 million will be included in the priority groups in the biggest vaccination programme since the smallpox immunisations in 1964.
However, it is surprising that healthy children are not being prioritised as they are considered 'super-spreaders' of flu and a second wave of the disease is expected once schools have returned in the autumn.
Seventeen per cent of the 44 deaths have been in children aged under 15 and they have been ten times more likely to contract the H1N1 virus than the elderly.
Despite this, Government officials have decided to only vaccinate children who have underlying health conditions such as cystic fibrosis and asthma.
In America, everyone aged between six months and 24-years, has been put on the priority list to have the two-dose vaccine once it is available.
