High Risk

The Bucks County Health Department will administer 2,400 doses of flu vaccine at three sites throughout the county, officials said yesterday. Until now, the Health Department had no vaccine to offer, said Gordian V. Ehrlacher, the county's public health administrator. The county had ordered all of its vaccine from Chiron Corp., whose shipments were discontinued last month because of problems at its British plant. The new supply came from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, but is still 5,600 doses shy of what the county had ordered from Chiron.

It's a story that's becoming all too familiar: a record flu-vaccine shortage - half the nation's expected 100 million doses are unusable - with many high-risk patients, many of them elderly, waiting in long lines but unable to get a flu shot. Nonetheless, public health experts and others such as Tommy Thompson, the U.S. health and human services secretary, say we're not facing a public health crisis despite the staggering shortfall in flu vaccine. I disagree. This is a public health crisis that needs to be addressed - now, not later.

Health-care professionals in New Jersey could be fined $500 for giving the flu vaccine to someone not in a high-risk group, under an order expected to be issued as early as today. Gov. McGreevey yesterday signed a law directing the commissioner of the Department of Health and Senior Services to issue the order spelling out who can get the vaccine during this season's shortage. The order, which was being finalized yesterday, also would give the commissioner the power to redirect shipments of the vaccine to ensure it reaches those who need it most.

Health-care providers in New Jersey would be penalized for giving flu shots to those not in high-risk groups, and orders of the vaccine could be redistributed by the state under a bill passed yesterday. If Gov. McGreevey signs the bill, New Jersey would join a growing number of states that have attached penalties to the violation of federal guidelines for who should be vaccinated during the nationwide flu-shot shortage. The state would be the only one, however, to address the situation through legislation rather than direct action by the government, the National Conference of State Legislatures said.

For Allison Oler, the severe shortage of influenza vaccine is more than a story on the nightly news. As the mother of three children, she knows that her house will be incapacitated for a week if - or is it when? - the flu arrives. Worse, as a primary-care physician, she has several thousand high-risk patients who are now without an inoculation that could save their lives. Five years ago, there wasn't much interest in the vaccine; now it is more precious than a winning lottery ticket, and its distribution seems just as random.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health exhausted its flu vaccine supply yesterday after inoculating just a fifth of the needy patients it had planned to help. The announcement yesterday forced the city to shut down the immunization program at its district health centers. But officials said there was still hope that more supplies would arrive. "There is no reason to panic or for hysteria," said Health Commissioner John F. Domzalski. The shutdown could have a big effect on the health of vulnerable residents if it holds.

Hundreds of Montgomery County residents were turned away from the Health Department's first clinic of the season offering free flu shots yesterday, while the lucky ones mobbed basement tables and overflowed into a nearby chapel. The Montgomery County Health Department had planned to give the free shots to eligible county residents beginning at 1 p.m. at Carmel Presbyterian Church in Glenside. But people began lining up for the suddenly scarce vaccine five hours before. By noon, new arrivals were already being told there would be no more spots available to those not holding numbers.

Ray Bauer scurried over to Camden County's senior health fair yesterday to wait in line for 1 1/2 hours for a much coveted flu shot. "I really do feel lucky," said Bauer, 65, a Haddonfield resident who waited along with 1,800 others for the shot. One day after federal health officials announced that the nation had lost half its flu vaccine supply, the shortage's hard reality started settling in, with doctors' offices and health clinics struggling to offer guidance to anxious patients.

The eighth rape linked through DNA to a serial predator who has attacked women since 2002 in sections of North and South Philadelphia occurred Feb. 15 in the 900 block of South 16th Street, police said yesterday. A 34-year-old woman was asleep in a house on the South Philadelphia block when she was awakened about 2:30 a.m. by a man who claimed he had a knife, although the victim reported never seeing it. The house had no door locks and no working utilities. The intruder repeatedly raped the woman over the next two days, fleeing about noon Feb. 17 when someone knocked on the door, police said.

The roads are filled with maniacs, and those are just the drivers. The murder rate is astronomical. Half the country's population smoke like fiends. Is this a great place to sell insurance, or what? Of course not. But Iraq's three government-owned insurance companies are doing it anyway, having resumed operations last year after rebuilding their looted offices. And foreign insurers are circling the market, awaiting a new insurance law and a calmer environment before plunging into what they think could be a lucrative business.