University receives first shipment of H1N1 vaccine

On Tuesday Hopkins received 200 doses of the vaccine for the H1N1 flu virus.

According to Alain Joffe, Director of the Student Health and Wellness Center, because the vaccine was attained so recently no one has yet received it, including Health and Wellness employees.

"About 10 people have called to make appointments to get the vaccine," he said. Those vaccinations will begin this Friday.

Joffe also said that he intends to make the vaccine readily available for all Health and Wellness employees, although the University cannot make them get the shot.

Dennis O'Shea, spokesperson for the University, said that the official policy at Hopkins, "is not to require [the vaccine] for healthcare workers."

Due to its scarcity, at the moment the vaccine is only being offered to students considered high priorities, as designated by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines.

This includes pregnant women, students who are 18 or younger and have asthma, and students who are 18 or younger and are taking immuno-suppressant medications or have conditions that interfere with their immune system.

O'Shea did not know the exact number of students who fit the category of high-priority.

"That will have to be determined by people coming forward," he said. "We're not aware of the numbers across the whole University of students who are pregnant, if any, or of people with asthma."

However, he said he thought the number was probably low.

He did acknowledge that some of the criteria for high-priority status was specifically in regard to students 18 or younger, which is a large portion of the freshman class.

"Most of our freshmen enter the University at 17 or 18... so that's probably a large chunk of the freshman class," he said.

Students with heart diseases or diabetes are not among those considered high-priority.

Joffe explained that this was because epidemiologists did not find them to be at greater risk of complications from H1N1.

"Infectious disease experts have looked at the data for who is most likely to get complications . . . and people with diabetes or heart diseases had a lower risk," he said.

Joffe said that Health and Wellness will be taking several approaches to alerting high priority students about the availability of the vaccine.

"We have the information on our website, we sent out the broadcast e-mail and we will try to contact at-risk students as we can," he said.

However, he acknowledged that because Health and Wellness staff will be very busy in the upcoming weeks, they may not be able to contact all at-risk students directly.

"We'll be very busy, but when people do have down time we'll have them calling students," he said.

Joffe said that high priority students should have received the seasonal flu vaccine before the H1N1 vaccine or else should schedule to receive it at the same time.

"If you want to be at the front of the line for this vaccine, you should get the seasonal one as well," he said.

"Seasonal flu can cause just as much damage to an at-risk individual."

He said he did not know when the University would receive another shipment of vaccines.

"The vaccine goes from the manufacturers to the CDC to the state, and they make the decision," he said. "We don't have any control over that."

He added that the state anticipates only having about one million dosages by the middle of November. That number would only vaccinate about 20 percent of Maryland's population.

Joffe added that he has requested enough vaccines for the entire student body, but does not know how many more doses the University will receive.

The seasonal flu vaccine is also currently available at Health and Wellness. Unlike the H1N1 vaccine, which is being paid for by the federal government, the seasonal vaccine costs $15.

Joffe recommends students get the seasonal flu vaccine as well as the H1N1 vaccine, but opinion among students seems to be split.

Freshman Maria Ly said, "I won't be getting the vaccine because . . . I've been around a lot of people with swine flu . . . I think that people are overreacting over the swine flu."

Meggie Margrabe, also a freshman, disagreed, saying, "I plan on getting the vaccine . . . I don't see any reason why I shouldn't, and getting sick would really make school impossible."

Freshman Rabia Karani says that she wants the vaccine because, "at Hopkins, I feel like I really don't want to miss my classes and exams."

Her roommate, Samira Hassan, added, "I want to take any and all preventive measures to avoid getting and spreading H1N1."

However, most students agreed that healthcare workers should indeed get the vaccine.

Sophomore Joni Sliger said, "There's a lot of sick people coming to get them, so if [heathcare workers] are carriers, it will be a definite problem."

Joffe acknowledged that there has been some controversy in the media surrounding the vaccine, but said he believes it is safe and students who are eligible to do so should get it.

"People are concerned that this vaccine has been rushed, and that is simply not true," he said.

"All vaccine experts are saying this vaccine was developed the same way as the seasonal flu vaccine and has been tested the same way."

- Additional reporting by Laura Muth