There was a recall on about 800,000 doses of prefilled H1N1 vaccine syringes which were not potent enough. The San Francisco Bay area had received approximately 9000 of the 47,800 doses of the state and was only able to send back about 500. The recall was far enough along in the distribution of the vaccine that the missing 8500 have already been used. These doses were for use in infants 6 months to 3 years old and parents are told that their children will be fine and another dose of the vaccine is not needed. The vaccines were initially potent enough, but when released to the US public, the potency was much lower than the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration required.

The doses which were recalled on December 7th were only slightly below the required levels, but they were still effective in their vaccination in children. The children taking this vaccine will still need to take their second dose, as young children require 2 doses of the vaccine (the next within 3 weeks) to be protected. The City is planning to release the next batch of 16,000 doses at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium to the people who are most at risk of contracting the virus on December 22. The people who are most at risk are pregnant women, caregivers of children under 6 months, the young under 24 years, people under the age of 65 with underlying health conditions as well as health care workers.

Image Credit: xieqiang.li