Feds Downplay H1N1 Shortfall

U.S. officials Monday said they had slashed their estimate of how many H1N1 flu vaccine doses will be available for the start of a mass vaccination campaign in the fall. Citing delays in manufacturing and packaging the vaccines, the Department of Health and Human Services(HHS) said only 45 million doses of the new H1N1 vaccine would be on hand in mid-October, instead of the 120 million previously forecast. Twenty million doses a week, federal officials said, would be added each week after that.

The revised delivery guidelines have pushed back a U.S. government estimate on priority immunizations that the government had hope to complete by early December. That date is now uncertain.

Bruce Gellin, executive director of HHS National Vaccine Program said on "The Early Show" Tuesday what's being viewed as a massive shortfall should instead be viewed as a delay.

"It's not really a shortage. I think it's really a delay. I think the people who are on that list need to anticipate there's going to be vaccine available for them. Talk to their doctors, talk to their health departments, and start to think about where they're going to get the vaccine when it becomes available."

But what is causing the delay?

Gellin said several factors are at play, but the basic reason is because the virus is made with living viruses.

"The viruses have to grow in these (manufacturing) systems. They're grown in eggs, and every year we have to make sure that the virus do the best they can in growing in eggs. It was initially somewhat disappointing that this virus wasn't growing so well. There have been a number of laboratories around the world, including CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and others, who working with the manufacturers, may be improving that right now. But at least at the beginning, that's what's slowing down the number of doses that can be provided in a certain period of time."

However, with the flu season around the corner, the delay is not good news, according to experts.

Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University Medical Center told CBS News, "We're in a race between vaccine and virus; this gives the virus a bit more of an advantage.

People who would go to the front of the line upon the vaccine's release, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, include pregnant women, health care workers, caregivers of children under six months, children and young adults aged six months to 24 years and adults aged 25 to 64 with medical conditions.

Gellin said this sector of the population is "the most vulnerable and have the complications of the H1N1 virus when they get it."

Gellin said the list is based on a decision by a CDC advisory committee that studied patterns of the H1N1 flu and determined who should be immunized first.