According to the latest news from the UK, the scarcity of flu vaccination schedules is occurring widely.
In the context of the UK National Health Service (NHS) urgently calling on people to get vaccinated to deal with the "great yellow flu" causing a record number of hospitalizations, the reality at vaccination points is extremely difficult: Most large pharmacy chains in the city center have announced that there are no empty schedules due to the vaccine reserves gradually running low.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently confirmed that 27 out of 38 countries in the European region are recording high or very high flu transmission rates. More worryingly, WHO's Director for Europe said a new strain of the flu was the main cause, accounting for up to 90% of confirmed infections.
In the UK, this year's flu season has come about 4 to 5 weeks earlier than usual and is dominated by the H3N2 strain that has undergone genetic changes compared to the time of the vaccine's early season. Despite the imperfect compatible, experts still confirm that the current vaccine provides relatively good protection.
A survey shows that booking appointments in London, Manchester or Birmingham is almost impossible. Major systems such as Boots, Superdrug or Tesco are all overloaded. Boots have stopped accepting online appointments for people under 65, while Tesco warned that the number of remaining vaccines is very limited and many branches have completely run out of shares. This is especially difficult for high-risk groups such as pregnant women and people with underlying diseases, who already have alarmingly low vaccination rates.
Explaining this local shortage, experts say the vaccine is typically ordered all year in advance and demand typically drops in December. However, the sudden outbreak of the epidemic at the end of the year has quickly exhausted supply.
In this situation, NHS has issued a warning asking community pharmacies to order directly from the manufacturer instead of through wholesalers. Despite admitting the pressure at vaccination points, the NHS spokesperson still affirmed that there is no shortage of vaccines nationwide and there are still more than 3 million doses in the system ready to be coordinated.
