Hundreds attend pediatric flu clinic, overwhelming event

“It’s the most people I’ve ever seen at one flu clinic,’’ said Dr. Elisabeth Keller, a pediatrician at Roslindale Pediatric Associates, which ran the clinic for patients at its office in Faulkner Hospital.

It was the first of six scheduled flu shot clinics for patients of Roslindale Pediatric, but when it became clear that officials would not have enough vaccine to last more than the first session, they indefinitely postponed the remaining clinics.

The flu prevention clinics usually draw between 200 and 250 patients, but the spurt in H1N1 cases has increased demand in general, and officials yesterday served 408 children.

Keller said the first person arrived at 7:15 a.m. The clinic was scheduled to run from 9 to 11 a.m. and ran two hours over.

She and another pediatrician working at the clinic, Dr. Mitchell Tunick, said they were inundated after patients learned the other scheduled free flu shot clinics would be postponed.

Tunick said he believed more doses would be available by next month.

But parents who were forced to wait in line for two hours so their children could get vaccinated were questioning why there was a wait at all.

“My concern as a parent and as a citizen is again a question of why this stuff isn’t happening fast enough if there is in fact concern,’’ said Patricia Zembruski, 50, of Roslindale.

The reason, Keller explained, was that the same manufacturers make the seasonal flu and the H1N1 vaccines for the country. Because they are producing both, seasonal flu shot production has been delayed.

Keller said the Roslindale Pediatric patients had been “wonderfully patient’’ in waiting for the vaccine, but they have been asking questions about the vaccines that the staff cannot address.

“There’s a lot of questions out there’’ about the safety of the H1N1 vaccine, said Zembruski, adding that “a lot of parents don’t have information.’’

Both Keller and Tunick insisted that the H1N1 vaccine is safe. “Once you get educated from a scientific point of view rather than a lay press point of view, it’s a total non-issue. It’s the same vaccine, produced the same way, just targeted at a different virus,’’ Tunick said.

“If you’re going to question the H1N1 flu, then you’re going to question the seasonal flu. We don’t see a difference as far as the vaccine,’’ he added.

To them, the larger issue was why privately owned pediatric offices have to give flu shots instead of the state.

The pediatricians and many of the office staff had come in on their day off.

“It’s not a money-making thing for us,’’ Keller said. “We’re doing what’s right. And we’re still not getting it done adequately because we just can’t.’’

The small corridors where hundreds of patients crammed into at Roslindale Pediatric to wait for vaccines reflected Keller’s point that the facilities were not meant to handle the large number of people waiting to be vaccinated.

“The state really should be running vaccine administration programs,’’ Tunick said. “On this kind of scale, we’re not equipped to do it.’’

State health officials could not be reached for comment.