Students Told To Wait Their Turns

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THE NEXT CLINIC

Students from St. Vincent de Paul and Wheeling Catholic elementary schools and Wheeling Central Catholic High School can receive the swine flu vaccination from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Ohio Valley Medical Center's Nurses Residence auditorium, 2000 Eoff St., Wheeling.

WHEELING - Parents who think they can get their child vaccinated before it is their turn should think again.

While attempting to get the swine, or H1N1, flu vaccination early, a handful of children were turned away during a mass clinic Monday. The clinic was for students of Triadelphia Middle School and Steenrod and Woodsdale elementary schools only. It was held at Triadelphia Middle.

Howard Gamble, Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department administrator, said two families who didn't qualify, with five children total, wanted to have their children vaccinated during the clinic. But because the children were not students at Triadelphia, Steenrod or Woodsdale, they were turned away.

"We can't begin making exceptions," Gamble said. "(Health Officer Dr. William Mercer) and I talked about this. We have to keep to a plan. ... We can't pick and choose and get caught being biased."

Gamble said the health department brought enough vaccine to inoculate all 1,100 students from the three schools. More than 600 children were vaccinated. In addition to the five children who were not students of the schools, Gamble said several children who had fevers also were turned away.

He noted make-up vaccination clinics for students will be scheduled at a later date for students who missed their designated clinic or for students whose parents changed their minds about their children receiving the vaccine.

Children who were turned away because of illness can attend the next student clinic, but they must be fever-free for at least 24 hours after their initial illness.

And if a child who had to be turned away at a clinic became fatally ill and died?

"It would be a regrettable event if that happened, but we have planning for a purpose," Gamble answered. "We must stay true to the plan. If we give special exceptions, we run into chaos."

Schools chosen to receive vaccine are based on rates of absenteeism and reports of illness or flu-like symptoms. The number of vaccine doses the health department anticipates receiving also is taken into consideration when planning clinics. When it comes to vaccinating the student population, the health department makes apparently infected schools a priority.

"It doesn't make sense to let those children hang," Gamble said of healthy students at facilities with high rates of illness.

A few physicians in Ohio County have registered with the state to receive vaccine to inoculate the public, Gamble noted. Currently, two doctors each have 200 nasal doses available: Dr. Richard Irvin in Elm Grove and Doctors Urgent Care in Wheeling. A few others received vaccine and already used it to inoculate their nursing staffs.

The physicians are supposed to vaccinate only those who fall into the five priority categories set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those categories include: direct health care workers; pregnant women; people who live with or care for children 6 months old or younger; people between 6 months old and 24 years old; and people 25-64 years old who have chronic health disorders or compromised immune systems.

Gamble anticipates more vaccine designated for the registered physicians will arrive at a later date.

Member Comments

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MeanStreak
11-02-09 7:44 AM »Report Abuse	yea Boxer I did -- West Liberty but oh well it is the high school on the hill. Wadam yes I did do the research paper and the data I recieved was from a manual they use for underwriting loans. The bank was Wesbanco. This was approximately 15 years ago though.
ConcernedMother
11-02-09 12:08 AM »Report Abuse	anybody that has an EXTREMELY high risk kid would be bickering as well. Gamble is a bias pig that will do only the people he wants to do and that is that. Why bother with such an arrogant jerk that obviously likes to have control in his own power. Congrats to you Mr Gamble. All I know is that I would not want to feel the guilt you are going to feel when someone you turned away ends up dying from the swine flu.
wadam180
10-30-09 3:06 PM »Report Abuse	wrong article
wadam180
10-30-09 3:05 PM »Report Abuse	Funny, last year around this time Obama outline his plans for health care reform and McCain outlined his plans for health care reform. They were both clear what they envision. President Obama clearly said he wanted a government option. We went to the picked President Obama by a large majority. The decision was made, elections count.
richardwhee
10-30-09 1:41 PM »Report Abuse	Bixxxx,Bixxx, Bixxx. Is that all some people can do? The Health Dept has a plan that is working. It will never please everyone. So why not shut-up and go along with the game??
Littlebeavis
10-30-09 9:33 AM »Report Abuse	Just wondering what your definition of "wealthy" is?
ConcernedMother
10-30-09 7:28 AM »Report Abuse	First off LittelBeavis, yes the kids from the Island do go to Triadelphia, but if you look at that clinic, they were left out. MADISON was NOT done. This is affluent based. No oubt in anyone's mind and the Island kids being left out just proves he wanted the wealthy kids done first. However, I do not care if the wealthy get done first. I just think that the high risk children need done first, wealthy district or not. And what if they are not in school yet, what then?? Pregnant women can start getting done today. Whay are the high risk kids being left out? They should be done too!
boxerboy
10-30-09 12:03 AM »Report Abuse	Meanstreak. Based on your writing and composition skills I'd have to say you probably attended, but did not graduate, from a no-account dinky community college in Dogpatch and were taught by someone who barely got through high school.
1whoworks
10-29-09 9:12 PM »Report Abuse	Since when has money influence government decisions? LOL and some what them to be in charge of all healthe care!
wadam180
10-29-09 9:03 PM »Report Abuse	MeanStreak- ****, you are cracking me up! You did a research paper on "parental income base" by "cross referencing" data you got from a friend from the bank. THE bank. MMmmmwwahhhahahaha
MeanStreak
10-29-09 8:41 PM »Report Abuse	LittleBeavis I know that and no one said thatall were wealthy. You make that assumption. I know that they are a mix. It is the total income base. The totality of income per family is higher than majority of the other schools. I did a research paper on this very thing in college. Statistical analysis I did froma cross reference from a frind in the bank showed the income levels. But you are correct it is a mix just not as big a big as you lead to believe.
Littlebeavis
10-29-09 7:32 PM »Report Abuse	Just for the record, not everyone who goes to Steenrod, Woodsdale, or Triadelphia is wealthy. Kids from the Island go to Triadelphia and kids from Clator go to Steenrod. Those schools are a real mix. Some people are just in to class warfare.
popeye
10-29-09 4:04 PM »Report Abuse	Will Dr Mercer allow you to smoke while waiting in line? :)
Jeff41
10-29-09 3:44 PM »Report Abuse	WVtoMD1992 - The plan in place was designed to help organize the vaccination process. During the planning process and to a parent known to me, Mr. Gamble said that nobody would be turned away at any of the sites. The problem is that the rules have changed after the process started and now a different plan is being used.
true2bun
10-29-09 3:09 PM »Report Abuse	do the kids at other schools get shots at later dates or just ignored, would have been a great thing to include in the artice, freakin journalist, if so they be
MeanStreak
10-29-09 1:23 PM »Report Abuse	WVtoMD I simply said that I was glad you left because you sounded so negative. I too am negative at times adn I hope that moving created a great oppurtunity for you and your family. Could you not have stayed and developed your choice of trade here by starting your own company or something? I agree with you the parents should NOT have taken their children. This would have caused dismay and distrust with the children. I simply think that it was wrong for them to start with the more affluent schools. Maybe they could have gone with a lottery system or something for the entire county. I am just saying. Good luck to you and if you get a chance to move back and help our community grow you we would geat you with open arms. Atleast I hope the hometown brotherhood/friendship will get passed the division this country seems to be headed toward. I apologize for sounding condescending. Again good luck.
JamesT
10-29-09 11:21 AM »Report Abuse	You can thank the greedy and corrupt lawyers for sueing vaccination companies out of business in America. Over twenty years ago , we had over a dozen companies manufacturing various vaccines. Thanks to The American Bar Association and Trail Attourneys Association, we now have two. The two are cautious NOT to even attempt to develope new vaccines due to sleazy lawyers waiting to pounce at any opportunity. Most of our vaccines come from overseas now. Once again, Healthcare's number costs is due to Tort. Frivalous suits and corrupt politicians are responsible. I applaud the doctors for rejecting Obma's $250 billion dollar bribe to jump on board the liberal sosailist healthcare bandwagon. Anothe rreason why lawyers hate doctors... doctors are ethical as lawyers are corrupt. The next time a schiester needs a surgery, maybe another attorney could perform the operation!!
WVtoMD1992
10-29-09 11:03 AM »Report Abuse	Meanstreak - my post should have been more directed at the five parents. It appears to me the county has a plan in place and they chose not to follow it. I would think this shot procedure is in place to keep order. The county can't have everyone show up at the same time or people would complain about the long lines. I believe they are trying to do this in a orderly manner. We are going thru the same thing here, the county is rolling thru the schools and the very young & old got to our Health Dept. I really mean this....if I could have stayed in Wheeling, I would have in a minute, but my degree wasn't in law, medicine, or banking and I don't have a trade (plumbing, electrician, etc), which all Wheeling had left to offer in the way of employment.
MeanStreak
10-29-09 10:39 AM »Report Abuse	WVtoMD glad to see you moved away. Like I said it does not make a huge difference to me. The facotr in this, as justmytake has mentioned, the tax payers will have to foot the bill for the lowest income level students. I am just as affluent as the majority of people in the other communities. I CHOOSE to live where I do and proud of it. Even though the income base is somewhat lower than say Oakmont Hills or Stonegate.
judylynn
10-29-09 10:22 AM »Report Abuse	so why do some let kids get the shot knowing they dont attend their school and turn others away.freinds maybe ? whats with that really happened at this clinic!!!
WVtoMD1992
10-29-09 10:19 AM »Report Abuse	and they turned away five kids, who have parents that can't follow instructions. Do these parents not know where their kid goes to school? People - it doesn't get much simplier than these instructions.
WVtoMD1992
10-29-09 10:15 AM »Report Abuse	This board has become the most negative and full of crybabies ever. If you don't like that the affluent section got taken care of first, quit spending so much time complaining and less time on your PC, so you can get a job to get off welfare, get off foodstamps, get off unemplyment, etc. and move to a better part of town. Next up - we will here how race played a role in this process. I guess then I should start complaining about how a large portion of money goes to food stamps, welfare, etc, etc. You people want the whole cake all to yourself. Grow up and take care of yourself....
TruthSeeker
10-29-09 10:09 AM »Report Abuse	Why aren't there being public innoculations right now? Why aren't health care facilities and doctor's offices being allowed access to the vaccine to inoculate their patients?
justmytake
10-29-09 9:24 AM »Report Abuse	How can Mr. Gamble turn away anyone? Let's review. They had 1,100 doses available. They used 600 doses. But still they turned away five children. What's wrong with this picture? I think that the health department is once again showing it's backside. How can they turn away anyone when they had 500 doses to spare? How about letting those from other schools wait till the end then if there is enough take care of them? Is this program not being paid for by my tax dollars? Something smells here. I would like to see the documentaion that supports Gamble's allegation that they are innoculating those schools with the highest rate of absenteesim. Why innoculate the affluent schools first. The parents of those children mostly have health insurance or can pay for the children to be immunized. The poor once again are being dumped on. And when the poor kids get sick our tax payer dollars have to foot the medical bill. I say innoculate the least affluent schools first.
MeanStreak
10-29-09 8:23 AM »Report Abuse	did anyone elso note the where the next round is going to be. The private catholic schools. Does not effect me in any manner cause it hasbeen our choice not to have our children inocculated. I am just saying that money and power seems to be playing a big role in this. I would also bet the statistics would indicate that the lower income based schools would have a higher flu rate due to factors associated with some low income families.

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