The H1N1 flu vaccine is safe, but distribution is behind schedule, according to testimony before a Senate committee Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

The vaccine is as safe as the seasonal flu vaccine, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.

“Because the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine is made the same way as seasonal influenza vaccines, we expect it to have a similar safety profile as seasonal flu vaccines, which have a very good safety track record,” she said.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, asked Sebelius about reports of vaccine distribution delays and asked whether she was concerned about the implications those delays might have.

“You said there will be enough for anyone who wishes to receive it, but a study that was published last week by Purdue University stated that the vaccine will arrive too late to help most Americans who will be infected,” Collins said.

Sebelius said manufacturing delays have caused “significant reductions” in the amount of H1N1 flu vaccine that’s currently available.

The federal government originally promised 120 million doses of swine flu vaccine by now, according to The Associated Press. Only 13 million have come through.

As nervous Americans clamor for the vaccine,
production is running several weeks behind schedule, and health
officials blame the pressure on pharmaceutical companies to crank it
out along with the ordinary flu vaccine, and a slow and antiquated process that relies on millions of chicken eggs.

There
have been other bottlenecks, too: Factories that put the precious
liquid into syringes have become backed up. And the government itself
ran into a delay in developing the tests required to assess each batch before it is cleared for use.

What effect the delays
will have on the course of the outbreak is unclear, in part because
scientists cannot say with any certainty just how dangerous the virus
is, how easily it spreads, or whether it will mutate into a more lethal
form.

Since April, swine flu has killed more than 800 people in
the U.S., including 86 children, 39 of them in the past month and a
half, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More
than half of all hospitalizations since the beginning of September were
people 24 and under.

“We’re in this race against the virus, and
only Mother Nature knows how many cases are going to occur over the
next six to 10 weeks,” said Michael Osterholm, a vaccine expert at the University of Minnesota.

Sebelius said daily orders are being made on a per-capita basis and are being pushed out the door (to states).

“We’re hoping by early November that they will be back on track with the number of vaccination doses per week that we had originally anticipated,” she said.

Dr. Dora Ann Mills, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control, said injectable H1N1 flu vaccines have been trickling in daily for the past two weeks.

“Certainly, it is fair to say that eventually there will be enough vaccine for everybody, but it might take two or three or four months before we get there,” she said.

During the Senate hearing, Collins highlighted the recent Bates College H1N1 flu outbreak as an example of how quickly the virus can spread.

“In the next eight weeks, Maine is scheduled to receive only 340,000 doses of the vaccine; this falls short of the amount needed to vaccinate everyone in the priority groups that the CDC has identified,” she said.

Mills said the doses coming into Maine are being directed to schools to target one priority group.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said school officials are aware of the particular danger the virus poses to young people.

Despite the manufacturing delays, Sebelius praised efforts to produce the vaccine and the groundwork done by officials in response to pandemic flu concerns in 2003.

“With unprecedented speed, we have completed key steps in the vaccine development process,” she told senators. “The rapid responses of (Health and Human Services) agencies in terms of surveillance, viral characterization, pre-clinical and clinical testing and assay development were greatly aided by preparedness efforts for influenza pandemics set in motion by the H5N1 outbreak in 2003.”

Lewiston and Auburn schools have scheduled or plan to schedule clinics soon to vaccinate students.

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