Syracuse University received 200 more doses of nasal mist H1N1 vaccine Monday, said Carol Masiclat, SU Health Services spokeswoman. This is the first shipment that will be made available to the student body. Health Services sent an e-mail to the university community Tuesday afternoon alerting it to the delivery.

Students will be able to receive the vaccination during a clinic held at the Health Services building on Waverly Avenue Friday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Only students with a ticket will be able to get the vaccine Friday, Masiclat said. Free tickets will be available for students with an SU ID at the Schine Box Office starting Thursday at 9 a.m. until they run out. Based on student interest in seasonal flu vaccine, tickets are expected to run out quickly, Masiclat said. Students who wait in line, but are not among the 200 to receive a ticket, will have to come back the next time a clinic is scheduled.

‘I don’t imagine students will be waiting very long and losing a whole day,’ Masiclat said.

Students who obtain tickets will have a specific one-hour block Friday to go to Health Services and receive the swine flu vaccination. If all 200 ticketholders do not get a shot, Health Services will decide what to do with the additional vaccines at that time, Masiclat said.

Health Services expects to receive more shipments in coming weeks, but does not know the exact date or volume of the shipments, Masiclat said. Although both shipments so far have contained 200 doses, there is no indication that subsequent shipments will be the same volume, Masiclat said.

‘We know students are intensely interested,’ Masiclat said. ‘The university is equally interested. But we’re not in charge. The distribution is all carried out by the state.’

This is SU’s second shipment of swine flu vaccine in two weeks. The first shipment of 200 doses arrived Nov. 6 and was made available only to Health Services employees and people who work with children. The first shipment of 200 doses looks to be enough for them, Masiclat said, as not everyone who is eligible to receive the vaccine is interested in getting it.

Students who plan to get the swine flu vaccination said they are excited at its arrival.

‘It’s about time,’ said Flynn Okner, a sophomore social work major.

But Okner said she is wary about the effectiveness of the ticketing system, and said she would not want to get the vaccination if she had to wait three hours like she did for seasonal flu vaccine.

‘If there’s 400 students wanting to get a small amount, people will still wait a long time to get the tickets,’ she said.

As of Nov. 10, Health Services had diagnosed 411 students as having an influenza-like illness consistent with swine flu. Despite this, some students don’t plan to get the vaccination.

Julia McGovern, a sophomore Latin major, said she will only get the vaccination if her mother insists on it.

‘A lot of people are freaking about swine flu. They’re paranoid,’ McGovern said. ‘I’m not paranoid. I know a lot of people who have gotten it, and they’ve all recovered.’

rhkheel@syr.edu

Published on November 17, 2009 at 12:00 pm