Health

Texas border city out of vaccine, with no plan for more

EL PASO, Texas - Sitting at a card table in the corner of Barry Coleman's Pharmacy, a 90-year-old woman rolled up her sleeve and got one of the last flu shots available in the area.

Louise Mowbray said she hadn't been worried about finding a shot because her daughter, Jacquelyn Wehmeyer, is a health care worker. But it was a challenge, even for her, to track down a shot. "The elderly are scared to death," Wehmeyer said.

With more than 700,000 people in its metro population, El Paso may be one of the largest and poorest places to have so little vaccine, although it's hard to be sure. U.S. health officials are mum on where the worst shortages are.

El Paso's top health official, Dr. Jorge Magana, said: "We do not have any more flu vaccine to provide to the public. We don't know when we will have more vaccine available."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said some 20-million doses will be shipped to areas with shortages over the next six to eight weeks.

WASHINGTON - The chairman of a congressional committee refused a request Friday from his panel's top-ranking Democrat to subpoena Food and Drug Administration records on the Chiron Corp. flu vaccine collapse.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., accused the agency of withholding the records to avoid scrutiny until after the Nov. 2 election.

He called on Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, tosubpoena the records. Davis declined. Acting Food and Drug Commissioner Lester Crawford had written Davis on Friday asking for more time, saying FDA personnel who would assemble the documents were swamped by the crisis.

CAPITOL GIFT: Seeking to address complaints of preferential treatment, Republican congressional leaders said Friday that 3,000 doses of flu vaccine intended for lawmakers, aides and other Capitol employees would instead be given to Washington's Department of Health and the District of Columbia Hospital Association.

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