If it were up to Washtenaw County health officials, there’d be enough H1N1 flu vaccine to go around. But there isn’t - here or anywhere else, for that matter.

Still, as serious and frustrating as the shortage of vaccine is, local health officials and the public both deserve credit for how well they’re coping with it.

People wait in long lines at an H1N1 vaccination clinic at Pioneer High School last month.

If anything, problems with the supply and distribution of this particular vaccine have created a greater awareness of how vulnerable we’d all be in the face of a grave flu pandemic, which H1N1 fortunately is not.

H1N1 hasn’t proven to be more deadly than one would expect from a seasonal flu. However, this flu is particularly contagious, affects the young more than the elderly, and is unpredictable in how bad the complications can be for those who get it. For those reasons, H1N1 has gotten more media attention than other flu strains.

Such coverage feeds public anxiety. When vaccine is in short supply, it heightens the anxiousness and puts a difficult burden on the public health system to quickly and fairly distribute vaccine in a way that doesn’t lead to massive frustration or needless panic.

Local health officials certainly aren’t to blame for the shortage. That’s a
worldwide issue, caused by a combination of bad fortune and a variety of inadequacies in the global production and distribution network. There are parts of the developing world where nobody has gotten the vaccine. And even in a country like ours, which is wealthy enough to buy its way into the front of the line, health officials overestimated and overpromised how much H1N1 vaccine would be available nationally.

In Michigan, it’s been estimated we’d need more than 5 million doses of vaccine to serve everyone who’s considered a priority risk for H1N1. The state’s been allotted 2.2 million doses. The math isn’t hard to do. Most people who want the vaccine aren’t going to get it.

At worst, the result can be a minor fiasco like the vaccination clinic that the county Health Department attempted at the Washtenaw Intermediate School District building in late October. The clinic was immediately swamped, snarling traffic on South Wagner Road and causing hundreds of people to be sent away unserved.

While that could have been avoided with better planning, we can’t fault county health officials for how quickly they regrouped and improved the process, adding more volunteers, choosing locations with better logistics and introducing a wristband system that evened out the flow of people waiting to be vaccinated. With these and other improvements, each subsequent clinic has gone better and earned mostly positive reviews from those who’ve been through the experience. Health officials also appreciate the spirit of patience and cooperation they’ve seen from the public.

Those who haven’t been vaccinated yet and want to be should watch for information on future clinics and go prepared to accept some inconvenience.

Meanwhile, the greater concern here is our demonstrated inability as a nation to provide adequate vaccine to those who need it. As U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said last week, we are fighting current flu strains with technology from the 1950s. Should a more deadly flu come along, such as an avian flu outbreak that’s been predicted, the result would be a calamity.

On a federal level, we need immediate investment in a new domestic system for developing and delivering adequate vaccine to our country and others. Whether that comes as part of national health care reform, or out of a major review that Sebelius ordered this past week, efforts to modernize the system must begin now.

If you believe in prevention, then make sure to cover your mouth when you sneeze, wash your hands regularly with soap and water - and contact your U.S. senator or representative to demand that they act now to address the many shortcomings in our vaccination system that the current debacle has so clearly exposed.