FYI

No New H1N1 Vaccine-11/8

We did not receive flu vaccine last week. We will post once we receive vaccine.

Until then, teach your kids to sneeze into their elbow a la Elmo and Rosita. A good video.

Elmo and Rosita-how to sneeze

There are other videos at Flu.gov

Lisp Treatment Study

We will from time to time post a resource that may be useful for parents. 

There is currently a clinical trial going on to evaluate a device  for treating children who have trouble pronouncing the "s" sound, commonly known as a lisp. Children must have the problem, be 5-8 years old, have received less than 10 hours of speech therapy and be a native speaker of English. The therapy provided in the study is free. 

Contact Gordy Rogers, M.S. CCC-SLP, (that's what certified speech therapists have to put after their name.) Gordy can be reached at articulationstudy@gmail.com or 917-628-7525. 

No New H1N1 Vaccine-Still

People are getting increasingly anxious about the H1N1 flu as the illness rate from flu and an unusual number of respiratory illnesses for this time of year goes up. Please remember that the most common symptoms of flu that we have seen is fever and a cough. Sore throats, rashes and GI symptoms are not typical of H1N1 or any flu. Muscle aches and pains are classic, but not essential. 

We don't have any new H1N1 vaccine as of this posting. We have not received any for the last 13 days. We hear occasional reports of a practice that has it, but some of these reports are rumors. Some schools are beginning to offer it. If your school offers it, sign up! Remember, get it from any source that has it. If a source has vaccine, they can only charge for administering the vaccine. The source cannot charge for H1N1 vaccine, since it is provided free of charge. In our office, we charge the insurance company the administration fee. We charge parents who qualify for vaccine $20 to administer the vaccine, since we cannot bill their insurance directly. 

We have had reports that some private schools have chosen to deny their students the vaccine through the school. This is poor judgement and should be addressed by parents. Public, parochial and private schools all have access to the free H1N1 vaccine. 

Lastly, this is New York. On Halloween, the doorbell rang. "Trick or treat!" came from a Power Ranger and a pink princess. From the parents behind them came, "Any H1N1 vaccine?" Had we had it, it might have been a good delivery method. 

As you know, we have never received the H1N1 vaccine for kids 6-36 months. They seem to be getting desperate. 

 

No New H1N1 Vaccine

As of November 1, we have not received any new H1N1 vaccine. We cannot book any vaccine appointments for H1N1 vaccine. We expect supplies to increase substantially over the next 2 weeks, although previous estimates of availability have been inaccurate due to problems producing the vaccine in quantity. 

Infant Seasonal Flu Vaccine Availability

We received 500 doses of the seasonal flu injectable vaccine for children 0-36 months of age. This is the preservative free vaccine. We have never received the equivalent H1N1 vaccine. 

Please call to make appointments for your child. We will try to give the vaccinations over the next 2 weeks. Please be aware that the vaccination visits are just for vaccinations. We need to move quickly to try to give as many vaccines as possible as quickly as possible to catch up with more than a month's shortage of vaccine.

There is not the same urgency with the seasonal flu vacicne as the H1N1 vaccine. Seasonal flu usually comes after the first of the year. If we receive infant H1N1 flu vaccine, we will substitute that vaccine as our priority, because infants are a risk group for H1N1. 

If you want to discuss a problem with us, please make an appointment or give us a call. Vaccine visits are just for vaccines. 

Vaccine Availability 10/27/09

All of the H1N1 nasal flu vaccine has been spoken for. We will notify you when the next supply is available. 

We have been told, although the vaccine companies have not been entirely reliable, that infant injectable seasonal and H1N1 flu will be available in the next week or so. 

H1N1 Flu by appointment

We stated that the H1N1 nasal flu was available on a first-come, first-served basis on this blog. 15 people were waiting outside our door this morning. Oops! 

Please call for an appointment. We usually give them in the afternoon. You will be able to get an appointment this week until we run out. That will be posted immediately. 

As you may have read, instead of having 120 million doses by the end of October, our vaccine manufacturers have only produced 13 million so far. The next couple of weeks should lead to an improvement.

Please click on the link button on the left to get a notification sent to your browser. If you don't know what we are talking about, go to the "Help" function on your browser and look up "RSS."

National Emergency Not Yet in Our Back Yard

President Obama announced a national emergency. This enables hospitals to set up special arrangements for handling large numbers of patients who are ill. 

At present, we have seen no uptick in flu-like illness in New York City. In our office we have seen a much higher number of sick children than is usual for October, but rarely any children with illnesses that are "flu-like."

The widespread H1N1 is, so far, not in our back yard.

Vaccine Availability 10/26/09

We will have 100 doses of H1N1 nasal flu vaccine available Monday 10/26 on a first-come, first-served basis. This is for children over 2 years old. Children with asthma may not get the vaccine below age 5. 

We have 50 doses of the seasonal preservative-free flu vaccine for children 6 months to 3 years covered by  government-sponsored health plans (such as Child Health Plus and the Medicaid plans.) We have been promised the same vaccine for patients with commercial insurance within 2 weeks.

We will post new information as it becomes available. 

Vaccinations in the Schools

Here is part of an AP article published 10/20 at 5 p.m.:

NEW YORK (AP) _ New York City schools will start vaccinating
hundreds of thousands of students against swine flu next week,
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday.
   The nasal spray vaccine will be available at public and private
elementary schools and will be offered to middle school and high
school students at central locations in each borough.
   The immunizations are free and available to all students,
Bloomberg said.
   ``We hope parents take us up on the opportunity to protect their
children from the H1N1 flu,'' Bloomberg said.
   The mayor joined Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Health
Commissioner Thomas Farley at a briefing that urged parents to sign
consent forms for the vaccination program that are being sent home
with students.
   They said children should be vaccinated by their regular doctors
if possible. ``If that's not an option, I urge parents to return
the completed consent forms and have their children vaccinated at
school,'' Klein said.
   Farley said he expects New York City to receive enough vaccine
for the schools.
   The doses will be administered on a staggered schedule, starting
Oct. 28 with public elementary schools with enrollments of less
than 400. Larger schools will get the vaccine in subsequent weeks,
and private schools that choose to participate will also get the
vaccine.
   

The devil is in the details. It all makes sense until you try to apply it to your situation. Who gets what and when? 

Our advice:

If someone sends you a permission form, sign it. Get your kids vaccination at the first site that has it.