FLU VACCINE INFORMATION

We are doing our best to keep this site updated regularly. Events are changing rapidly, and we will not be able to update the site more than once per day, so there will be times when the information you see will not be accurate to the minute. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

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Update 2/7/10


We continue to have plenty of H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines available. We have both the live, nasal H1N1 vaccine and the killed injectable H1N1 vaccine, as well as the injectable seasonal vaccine.

Seasonal flu has not yet occurred in the United States this season. It generally peaks in Massachusetts in February or March. If your child has not yet received the seasonal flu vaccine, it is definitely not too late! H1N1 flu has already had 2 peaks this year, and has really quieted down over the past month. However, it may return again this winter. If your child is not fully vaccinated against H1N1 flu, we recommend that you get your child vaccinated as soon as possible.

As a reminder, all children who have not yet reached their 10th birthday will need 2 doses of H1N1 vaccine this year to be fully protected. For the seasonal flu, children who have not yet reached their 9th birthday will need 2 doses of vaccine if this is their first year getting vaccinated.

Update 12/16/09


As has been reported widely in the media, there has been a recall of several lots of the H1N1, injectable thimerisol-free vaccine. The recall is not due to safety concerns, but to a potential minor decrease in potency of the vaccine. According to the CDC, the vaccine in these lots is still expected to be effective in stimulating an immune response, and doses do not need to be repeated.

A review of our records indicates that we did have some of this vaccine for children under three-years old. It is not necessary to determine which children may have received this vaccine since no action needs to be taken. If your child has already received both doses, then nothing further needs to be done. If your child is due for the second dose of the vaccine, be sure to arrange an appointment 4 weeks after the first dose for him or her to receive the second dose. None of the nasal mist or the vaccine for children over three was included in the recall.

Click here for more information from the CDC.

Update 12/15/09

H1N1 Vaccine

We again have plenty of H1N1 vaccine. We are able to offer first and second doses of the vaccine to all who want it. If you would like to schedule an appointment for your child to receive the H1N1 flu vaccine, please call our office between 9:30 and 4 PM on weekdays.

Seasonal Flu Vaccine

With all the concern about H1N1 Influenza this fall, it's easy to have forgotten about seasonal flu. Fortunately, the seasonal flu vaccine shortage has ended, and there is plenty of seasonal flu vaccine available. It is not too late to get your children vaccinated against the seasonal flu. Seasonal flu illness has not yet begun, and it generally peaks in Massachusetts in January and February.

If you would like to schedule an appointment for your child to receive the seasonal flu vaccine, please call our office between 9:30 and 4 PM on weekdays.

Update 12/10/09

We expect to run out of injectable H1N1 vaccine for children over age 3 very soon. We hope to receive more soon, but we have no indication of when that will happen at this time. We do continue to have plenty of H1N1 mist, and plenty of injectable H1N1 for children under 3. We also have plenty of seasonal injectable vaccine for children of all ages.

If you have an upcoming vaccine clinic appointment and are expecting your child to receive the H1N1 shot, it is possible that we may not have the vaccine in stock. We encourage you to consider the H1N1 mist, as it is easy, safe, and possibly more effective than the shot. If we run out of injectable vaccine, we will make every attempt to call those patients for whom a medical condition makes them not eligible to receive the mist. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience, and we appreciate your understanding during this difficult time.

Many of our clinics this week have filled up! We still have plenty of vaccine, and the following clinic times are available:

Friday December 11 - Every 15 minutes from 8:30 until 12:00

Saturday December 12 - Every 15 minutes from 8:30 until 11:00

Tuesday December 15 - Every 15 minutes from 1:30 until 6:00

Wednesday December 16 - 10:00, 10:15, 10:30, 10:45, and 11:00

Wednesday December 16 - Every 15 minutes from 1:30 until 4:00

Thursday December 17 - 10:00, 10:15, 10:30, 10:45, and 11:00

Thursday December 17 - Every 15 minutes from 1:30 until 6:00

If you would like to request an appointment for your child at one of our flu clinics, please complete and submit the following form (one form for each child) to our office by e-mail:

To submit a request for a Flu Clinic Appointment click here

We will either send a confirmation e-mail confirming the time you have requested, or we will suggest another time close to the time you have requested by either e-mail or telephone. Please include your day time telephone number in your e-mail. Please note that we will do our best to accomodate your request, but it is possible that appointments may fill up before we are able to respond to your specific request, and we may need to offer you a time that is not close to the time you request.

Please note that there must be 28 days between the first and second doses of the H1N1 Vaccine.

Update 12/7/09

We are now able to offer first and second doses of H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccine to all who are interested!

We have vaccine appointments available on the half hour during the following times this week:

between 1:30 and 5:30 on Tuesday December 8,
between 2 and 6:30 on Wednesday December 9,
between 5 and 6:30 on Thursday December 10,
between 9 and noon on Friday December 11.

If you would like to request an appointment for your child at one of our flu clinics, please complete and submit the following form (one form for each child) to our office by e-mail:

To submit a request for a Flu Clinic Appointment click here

We will either send a confirmation e-mail confirming the time you have requested, or we will suggest another time close to the time you have requested by either e-mail or telephone. Please include your day time telephone number in your e-mail.

If you have attended any of our flu clinics in the past, please be aware that these new flu clinics will move patients in and out at a much faster pace than we have done in the past. We need to do this to accomodate the large demand for these vaccines and the limited time and staff that we have available. Please help us by following these guidelines:

• Please dress your child in easily removed or loose fitting clothing and short sleeves. We will be bringing patients to a “staging area” in a hallway prior to vaccination, and patients will only be brought to the exam room for the vaccination when their shoulder (or thigh for children under 1 year of age) is not covered by clothing.
  


• There will be no time for discussion about the vaccines or about your child’s health at the flu clinic.
If you have questions about the vaccine or about your child’s health, please see our web page, call and speak with your doctor or a nurse before the clinic, or cancel your child’s appointment for the clinic. If you come to the clinic with questions about your child's health, you will be asked to re-schedule your appointment or offered an appointment to see one of the doctors in the office. There could be a long wait for the next available doctor appointment.


• Please note that the nasal mist vaccine cannot be given to children who have had any other live vaccine in the past month. This includes any other nasal vaccine, as well as MMR and chicken pox vaccines. The shot can be given regardless of any other recent vaccines.


Here are links to the official Vaccine Information Statements on the 4 forms of influenza vaccine. We encourage you to read the appropriate statement in advance of your clinic appoinment:

H1N1 Injectable Information

H1N1 Nasal Information

Seasonal Injectable Information

Seasonal Nasal Information



Lastly, please note that the Town of Framingham is holding an H1N1 Vaccine Clinic On Wednesday evening at Keefe Tech. See the town web site for more information: www.framinghamma.gov.

Update 12/4/09

If you are attending an H1N1 vaccine clinic at our office, please print the appropriate questionnaire (mist or shot) and bring a completed copy to the clinic with you. This will save us all time when you arrive at the office! We appreciate your cooperation.





Update 12/3/09

We have opened a large number of appointment slots for later afternoon/early evening on Thursday December 3. These slots are available for first H1N1 doses for children of all ages, and for second doses for children under 3 years of age. Note that we are now able to offer vaccine to children between 3 and 4 years of age.

There are also appointment slots available for the middle of the day on Friday December 4.

Please call the office between 9 AM and 4 PM if you would like to make an appointment for these H1N1 clinics.

Here are links to the official Vaccine Information Statements on the 2 forms of H1N1 influenza vaccine. We encourage you to read the appropriate statement in advance of your clinic appoinment:

H1N1 Injectable Information Statement

H1N1 Nasal Information Statement


Update 12/2/09

We have received a shipment of injectable H1N1 vaccine approved for children 4 years of age and older. We have appointments available for this vaccine as early as Wednesday morning and also later in the week. If you would like to make an appointment for your child age 4 and over to receive a first dose of injectable H1N1 vaccine, please call our regular office number between 9 AM and 4 PM. We are not able to book second doses of H1N1 vaccine for this age group at this time.

If you would like to schedule an appointment for your child under 3 to receive a first dose of H1N1 vaccine, or if your child under 3 has already had a first dose of the vaccine more than a month ago and you would like to schedule a second dose, please call our regular office number between 9:30 AM and 4 PM.

We are not able to book appointments at this time for children between their third and fourth birthdays, though we expect this to change in the next few days.

Update 12/1/09

We have received a shipment of injectable H1N1 vaccine in pre-filled, preservative-free syringes. This vaccine is for children under 3 years of age only. We are currently booking appointments for this vaccine at clinics scheduled in the next few days.

If you would like to schedule an appointment for your child under 3 to receive a first dose of H1N1 vaccine, or if your child under 3 has already had a first dose of the vaccine more than a month ago and you would like to schedule a second dose, please call our regular office number between 9:30 AM and 4 PM.

Please do not call the office if your child has reached his or her third birthday, as they cannot receive this particular type of vaccine. Please do not call the office if your child's first dose of H1N1 vaccine was less than a month ago, as we are not able to schedule future appointments at this time. We appreciate your continued patience and cooperation.

Please continue to follow this page daily, as we do expect more updates in the coming days.

Update 11/26/09

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have received a very large number of forms requesting H1N1 vaccine! We will work through our lists as new vaccine arrives, but unfortunately vaccine arrival has continued to be VERY SLOW.

It continues to appear that the state is sending large amounts of its H1N1 vaccine supply to public health clinics and schools. We encourage you to take advantage of these alternative locations for obtaining vaccine for you family! The state has established a web site where you can go online to look for public clinics where you can obtain H1N1 vaccine for your family:

Click here to go to the state-sponsored H1N1 Vaccine Clinic locator

H1N1 disease continues to be prevalent in our community, but the good news is that state and national data, along with our own experience in the office, suggests that the disease prevalence is quieting down. Of course this trend could change again, so we do encourage vaccination when the vaccine is available.

We do expect to receive a large supply of seasonal flu vaccine in the next 10 days. Seasonal flu season in Massachusetts has not yet arrived, so it is certainly not too late to receive this vaccine. We will update this site as more information becomes available concerning our supply of seasonal flu vaccine.

Update 11/21/09

In response to feedback we have received from our patients and their families, we are implementing a new strategy to more efficiently distribute H1N1 vaccine.

If you are interested in having your child receive the H1N1 injectable or nasal vaccine at our office, please complete and submit the following form (one form for each child) to our office by e-mail:

To submit a request for H1N1 Vaccine click here

If you feel your child is high risk please indicate the reason.

When vaccine becomes available, we will contact your family to schedule an appointment.

Please note that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has begun to distribute a significant share of its H1N1 vaccine allotment to schools and local public health clinics. This has resulted in us receiving smaller amounts of vaccine recently. You may find it easier to obtain vaccine for your child from one of these sites than from our office. If vaccine becomes available to your child through a school or town clinic, we encourage you to take advantage of that opportunity.

Please do not call the flu line in response to this posting as it has been discontinued.


Update 11/5/09

Please remember that our flu vaccine clinics are intended only for healthy children who are coming to the office only to receive a vaccine. Due to the high volume of these clinics, the clinic nurses and staff are NOT prepared or able to answer medical questions about a sick child, or to give information or opinions on the vaccines.

If you have questions about a sick child, or if you have questions about the vaccine, please be sure to get them answered before you come to clinic. Please call your doctor during the phone hour, or call and speak with one of the nurses at the office. The nurses at the clinic will NOT be able to answer these questions. If you come to the clinic with a sick child or with questions, the clinic staff will either offer you an appoinment to see the doctor at the next available appointment, or ask you to reschedule your clinic appointment.

Here are links to the official Vaccine Information Statements on the 4 forms of influenza vaccine. We encourage you to read the appropriate statement in advance of your clinic appoinment:

H1N1 Injectable

H1N1 Nasal

Seasonal Injectable

Seasonal Nasal


Update 11/4/09

Please understand that we can only provide injectable seasonal vaccine at this time to children under 3 years of age because the product we have in stock is only approved for that age group. We have no control over what vaccine supplies we receive at this point. We have ordered a very adequate supply of each type of vaccine; the delay in shipping is a nation-wide problem and not one we have any control over. We do expect to receive enough vaccine to vaccinate everybody before the seasonal flu disease occurs in our community.

Updated information from the CDC on H1N1 Vaccine


Update 11/3/09

Unfortunately, at this time we have no doses of either kind of H1N1 vaccine available. We realize that the slow and totally unpredictable arrival of very small shipments of vaccine to our office has caused a great deal of frustration and concern for many of our families. We feel very badly about this. Please understand that we are doing everything we can to make the best of a very difficult situation over which we have no control. At this point, we do not know when we will receive more vaccine.

We do have a large amount of the live, nasal seasonal flu vaccine, and of the injectable form of the seasonal flu vaccine for children 6 to 36 months of age. We do not have any injectable flu vaccine for children 3 and over. Our flu phone line 508-370-3140 will continue to be available for families who wish to make an appointment for one of these 2 forms of the seasonal flu vaccine. Please do not call to inquire about H1N1 vaccine.


Update 10/31/09

Thank you to all of our families who endured a difficult day on Friday trying to arrange appointments for our flu clinics! The good news is that we were able to schedule several hundred appointments for flu vaccines on very short notice in only one day while also taking care of our sick and well patients at a very busy time of year. The bad news is that we know thay many of you were very frustrated and disappointed at the amount of time you spent on the telephone, sometimes only to be told that there was no vaccine available that is appropriate for your child. Please understand that we have dedicated extraordinary amounts of time and energy trying to make the best use of technology, staff, and vaccine supplies while trying to be fair and equitable to all. We apologize to all who were disappointed at the outcome of Friday's events. We expect to receive plenty more vaccine in the coming weeks, and we will continue to make every effort to get the vaccine out to our patients as quickly and as fairly as possible.

A huge thank you to our staff for their extraordinary efforts Friday to make the very best of a difficult situation over which we had very little control. Particular thanks to our wonderful Medical Home Coordinator, Hannah Vereker, who answered almost every vaccine call, and who did so with calmness, patience and reassurance throughout a very long day.

Please note that we will not be booking any flu vaccine appointments over the weekend. Please do not call this weekend to ask about flu vaccine as our office staff and on-call doctor will be busy taking care of our sick patients and will not be able to book appointments or discuss vaccine supply, appointments, or recommendations. Please respect their need to be available for our sick patients, as well as the need for us to keep our phone lines open for this purpose as well. We appreciate your cooperation!

Update 10/30/09

Our office has received a shipment of both H1N1 flumist and H1N1 injectable vaccine as well as shipments of seasonal flu vaccine. We have set up a dedicated phone line for our families to call to make an appointment for any type of flu vaccine. Please call 508-370-3140 to book an appointment.

Please note that this is the ONLY number you should call for flu shot appointments. We ask that you be patient when calling for appointments in the event you receive a busy signal.

The remaining phone lines into our office will be for patients needing to make appointments for sick children and physical appointments. Flu appointment callers will be referred back to 508-370-3140.

Thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation with this request.


Update 10/28/09


The new pandemic flu outbreak has been confusing and worrisome for many of you. We know that it is difficult to keep track of all of the new information about the flu and the flu vaccine that changes daily. We have worked very hard to stay up to date and give you the best advice and care with this new disease. We ask that our patients and families take a moment to consider the difficulties that this season's flu vaccine supply challenges have caused for our office and staff. We have made tremendous efforts to be both fair and responsible in our use of the VERY limited supply of H1N1 vaccine we have received to date. Because the situation changes almost daily, we are in constant discussions within our office to try to be certain that our sickest patients receive the vaccine whenever possible while also keeping all of our families apprised of the situation. PLEASE be considerate of our staff when you call on the telephone. They are carrying out decisions we have made after VERY careful consideration of a number of factors, and we all have the goal of getting vaccine to our patients as quickly and fairly as possible.

Please also keep in mind that to date the H1N1 flu virus has been a relatively mild influenza illness. We have been seeing a fair amount of H1N1 illness in the office in the past week, and the typical course has been the usual 2-7 days of fever, cold symptoms, aches and pains. Everybody has recovered uneventfully.

We currently have no H1N1 vaccine in the office other than a very small amount reserved for patients who will receive it today. We do expect to receive more vaccine in the coming weeks, and we will update this site as more information becomes available.

Update 10/27/09


We have again today received a VERY SMALL amount of H1N1 injectable vaccine. We must continue to reserve this vaccine for our sickest patients. Unfortunately, we have no information on when we will receive more of any type of H1N1 vaccine. As has been reported widely in the press, production of the vaccine has been much slower than had been predicted even a few weeks ago. We continue to expect to receive enough vaccine to vaccinate everybody, but we have no information on when this will happen. We will continue to keep this site updated as new information becomes available.

We will receive a large number of doses of injectable SEASONAL flu vaccine for children under 3 years of age in the next few days. We will update this site when the vaccine arrives, and we will begin booking appointments for this vaccine at flu clinics when the vaccine arrives. We do not expect to run out of this supply any time soon.

We continue to have a large supply of SEASONAL live nasal vaccine as well, and we are also booking appointments for this vaccine at flu clinics as well as offering it during regular visits in the office. This vaccine is for HEALTHY children ages 2 and over.

We are still awaiting information on when we will receive more injectable SEASONAL vaccine for children over 3. We will keep this site posted as new information becomes available.


Update 10/15/09


As of today, we have run out of all doses of injectable season flu vaccine ("shots.") We have had to cancel all vaccine clinics. We do expect to receive enough vaccine to vaccinate everybody, but we do not know when that will be. It will probably not be until November. We will update this site when any new information is available. Please do not tie up our busy office phone lines calling to ask about flu shots. It prevents others from being able to call about their sick children. We appreciate your cooperation with this!

We do have a large supply of seasonal nasal flu vaccine (Flumist.) This vaccine is only available for healthy children over 2 years of age. We are able to book appointments for this vaccine. Please call the office between 10AM and 4 PM if you would like to schedule an appointment for the Flumist.

We have received very small amounts of both the nasal and injectable H1N1 vaccines. We have been forced to limit the injectable vaccine to only our very sickest patients. We have used a small amount of the nasal vaccine for healthy patients 2 to 10 years of age who have been in the office in the past week. We are almost out of our current alotment. We do expect to receive plenty more of each type of H1N1 vaccine, but we do not have any information on when that will be. We will keep this site updated as we receive new information.


Update 10/08/09


Please be aware that the early shipments of H1N1 vaccine will be only the live nasal vaccine. This vaccine is only for healthy children over 2 years of age. It can not be given to children with asthma or any other chronic medical condition, and it can not be given within 1 month of any other live vaccine, including the seasonal live nasal vaccine.

Update 10/01/09


We have been notified this week of manufacturing and shipping delays with the seasonal flu vaccines. Vaccine manufacturers have ceased production of the seasonal flu vaccine in order to concentrate on making the novel H1N1 ("swine") flu vaccine.

We expect to run out of seasonal flu vaccine in the VERY near future, as will providers all across the country. We do expect more vaccine in November. Because seasonal flu usually occurs after that time in most years, we are hopeful that we will eventually be able to get everybody vaccinated before the seasonal flu hits this year. We will not be booking appointments for flu vaccine until we are notified that we will be again receiving the vaccine.

We will almost certainly need to cancel appointments for flu vaccine clinics in the very near future. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. We expect to notify families of cancelled clinics by our computerized telephone service, and on this site. Please be on the lookout. We will keep this site updated with any new information on when the vaccine becomes available again.


Although the press has been reporting the expected arrival of novel H1N1 ("swine") flu vaccine in mid-October, we were notified today by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health that we will receive only VERY LIMITED supplies of the vaccine before November. This will be limited to only the very highest risk patients in only certain categories. We will update this site regularly as new information becomes available.


Updated 8/24/09


Once again this year, the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health are all recommending seasonal ("regular") flu vaccine for all children between 6 months and 19 years of age. In addition, vaccine is recommended for all women who will be pregnant during flu season, and for all household contacts and day care contacts of children under 6 months of age.


We are currently offering seasonal flu vaccine at all well child visits for children over 6 months of age. We are also currently booking appoinments for our ongoing flu clinics. They will generally be scheduled on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Please call the office if you wish to schedule an appointment for one of our clinics.


We have both the inactivated "flu shot" and the live intranasal flu vaccine available in the office during well visits and flu clinics. The intranasal vaccine is not approved for children under 2, children with a history of asthma, and some other children. See the link below for more information on both types of flu vaccine. Please be sure to specify if you are booking an appoinment for the nasal vaccine when you call the office!


We will not be able to offer the flu vaccine on weekends.


Recommendations and plans for the novel H1N1 ("swine") flu vaccine have not been made, and there is not currently a vaccine available. It is expected that this vaccine will be available in late October, and more information will be available in the fall. There is a possibility that 2 doses of the vaccine will be needed for everybody who receives this vaccine. It is for this reason that we are encouraging all of our patients and families to get the seasonal flu vaccine as early as possible this fall, so that there will be time to get the H1N1 vaccine if and when it becomes available.


Children under 9 years old receiving the flu vaccine for the first time will need two doses of the vaccine one month apart. Children under 9 who had only one dose last year will also need two doses this year.


Please be aware that our nursing staff will administer the vaccine and a physician will not be available to see your child during the flu clinics. See the links below for more information on the vaccines that should answer most questions about them. Please note that if your child is allergic to eggs, you should talk with your pediatrician before scheduling the vaccine. If you would like to discuss the vaccine further with your doctor, or if your child is sick on the day the vaccine is scheduled, please call to speak with the doctor during our regular Call Hour 8:30 to 9:00 AM daily.


If you would like to make an appointment for one of our flu vaccine clinics, please call our office between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM.




For more information on influenza vaccination, see the CDC flu vacccine web site


Click here to see the Vaccine Information Statement for the Inactivated Flu Vaccine ("shot")


Click here to see the Vaccine Information Statement for the Live, Intranasal Flu Vaccine





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