Source: SF Chronicle
Federal authorities plan to initiate a nationwide campaign in the coming weeks to persuade Americans to get the swine flu vaccine and to erase any public skepticism about the flu's danger and the safety of immunizations.
Even as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has manufacturers working overtime to produce a vaccine for the swine flu by mid-October, government officials are concerned that demand for immunization will not be high. In particular, parents participating in focus groups this summer expressed concern that ramping up vaccine production would make it less safe than the seasonal flu vaccine.
Only about 1 in 3 Americans gets the seasonal flu shot, but some of the groups with the lowest rates of immunization have the highest risk of becoming infected with the swine flu. Less than 25 percent of children under age 2 get the seasonal flu vaccine, for example, and rates are even lower for school-aged children
"Many parents (in focus groups) expressed a lot of concerns about 2009 H1N1 vaccine. Those concerns were centered around the fact that it was new and it was being developed quickly," said Kris Sheedy, a communications director with the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, during a meeting with reporters Tuesday at the CDC. "There were comments such as 'this is new and I don't want my child to be a guinea pig.' "
She added that people in focus groups mostly viewed the swine flu as a "mild disease," which might make them reluctant to be vaccinated.
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