Public health nurses have been lining up thousands of Coos County students to get the H1N1 vaccine, supplied free this year by the state and feds. Blanketing the schools with vaccines is a smart new tactic, conceived by our local public health managers. Though children aren’t the ones dying from the current strain of flu, they are the ones who spread it quickly and efficiently.

Basically, immunizing kids is a smart way to protect the rest of us.

Some adults have been grumbling. They want their own seasonal flu and H1N1 immunizations now, but vaccinations are hard to find. The county used up its regular supply right away. Pharmacy and clinic supplies have been hit or miss, and they likely will be that way all winter.

Ironically, adults are somewhat to blame. Each year, the county, clinics and pharmacies order hundreds of doses of the seasonal flu vaccine. Some years, few people want immunizations. So nurses cut back orders for the next year. There’s no way of knowing, when ordering supplies, how many people will show up seven months later.

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