Health and Human Services Secretary says swine flu vaccine will soon be available to everyone

October 26, 2009

Dallas, Texas (CaymanMama.com) — Although relief will not be seen quickly, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius assured the U.S. public on Monday that the H1N1 or swine flu vaccine “is coming out the door as fast as it comes off the production line.”

That statement sounds promising but Sebelius made sure to note that there would be a marked delay in producing a sufficient supply of the vaccine for all those demanding it.

“We were relying on the manufacturers to give us their numbers and as soon as we got numbers we put them out to the public. It does appear now that those numbers were overly rosy,” Sebelius said during an interview. “We do have a vaccine that works,” she added.

During a national news show on Monday morning, Sebelius said government health officials have generated a healthy supply of about 16.5 million doses of the swine flu vaccine, while acknowledging that that number is still millions of doses below the amount required to battle the national health emergency crisis.

According to the AP, “Sebelius said she couldn’t predict just how widespread the virus will be. Roughly a thousand people have died from it so far in the United States. But she also said officials do not believe there is yet any cause to close down schools and cease other daily activities.”

President Obama officially declared a health emergency on Friday night, having made the formal announcement on Saturday morning, giving hospitals and health professionals increase capabilities from federal regulations to respond to the swine flu outbreak.