REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
An influenza virus vaccine vial sits on the counter of medical center in Great Neck, New York, October 22, 2004. U.S. health officials, stung by political attacks after losing 40 percent of the flu shot supply, got a small break on Tuesday as one vaccine supplier announced it had squeezed out an extra 2.6 million doses. [The firestorm over blame for the loss of 40 million doses, which has prompted lines of worried elderly people at pharmacies across the country, raged on with just two weeks to go before the presidential election.]
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has called for mandatory annual flu shots for all health-care workers, a position similar to that of other organizations, including the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and the American College of Physicians. Many hospitals and some health-care systems, including the clinical centers of the National Institutes of Health, have already adopted mandatory-immunization policies, according to the AAP.
