I called all the Suffolk public vaccination sites.  They are all out of seasonal flu vaccine and no H1N1 anywhere to be found in Suffolk, VA.  They expect it mid-November.  While I was calling the Virginia State Department of Health my husband was speaking to his Virginia Beach living friend, while said friend was actually, at that very moment, getting the H1N1 vaccine at a private VaBeach practice.  The practice in question was giving the vaccine out only to established patients who had been seen in the past 6 months.

Then I called all the public vaccination sites in VaBeach.  They are all out of H1N1.

One pharmacist I spoke with had, herself, injected over 200 people with the seasonal flu vaccine, but could not get her own children vaccinated because when she went to the Health Department (local, VaBeach), they were out of seasonal flu vaccine.  The VaBeach health department is giving H1N1 vaccines to homeschoolers, but you should call first because they may already be out.  And you have to be a resident of VaBeach.

VaBeach had vaccine, (seasonal and H1N1) and ran out.  Suffolk, I don’t think, has ever got any H1N1, but I’m not sure. The best and truest thing I’ve heard all day is that there is “No rhyme or reason to the distribution of the vaccine.”

I think the main issue is that we don’t do this very often.  As a nation, we don’t generally freak out about an illness, rush a vaccine through our system, and expect the entire population to be vaccinated in a brief period of time.  We’re like virgins – stumbling around wondering if the needle made it in or not.