Sebelius: There Will Be Swine Flu Vaccine for All Who Want It

But the HHS secretary admits that delays are limiting supplies so far

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

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MONDAY, Oct. 26 (HealthDay News) -- While acknowledging delays in getting the swine flu vaccine to Americans, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Monday that the vaccine "is coming out the door as fast as it comes off the production line."

"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," Sebelius said on a morning network news program. "It does appear now that those numbers were overly rosy." She appeared Monday morning on three network news shows.

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Sebelius said that eventually there will be enough supplies "for everyone."

"We do have a vaccine that works," she said, adding that there are now roughly 16.5 million doses of the vaccine, which, she conceded, is still millions of doses below what is needed and what had been predicted, the Associated Press reported.

Asked what advice she would give to people who have waited in line for a shot only to find they couldn't get one, Sebelius said, "I want them to come back."

"I hope that people aren't discouraged," she said. "I know it's frustrating to wait in line and particularly if you end up with no vaccine. We wish this could have been smoother, that we had a larger supply. We knew it [the H1N1 flu] would come in waves."

On Saturday, President Barack Obama declared the H1N1 swine flu a national emergency.

His proclamation, signed Friday night and released Saturday by the White House, will allow hospitals and doctors' offices to get legal waivers of federal rules so they can handle large numbers of sick people as the outbreak spreads.

"The H1N1 is moving rapidly, as expected. By the time regions or health-care systems recognize they are becoming overburdened, they need to implement disaster plans quickly," White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said Saturday, according to the Washington Post.

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