Oct 15, 2009 5:16 pm US/Eastern
Inmates Not Getting Special H1N1 Vaccine Treatment
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
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Vials of H1N1 vaccine by manufacturer CSL are displayed near its production line in Melbourne, Australia on September 24, 2009.
WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images
When people first heard this story, it made a lot of people angry. The report said prison inmates were going to get the swine flu vaccine before the rest of us.
As WBZ has been reporting, the vaccine is in such short supply.
This story is not what it first appeared to be. Initially, it was thought that prisoners were going to get the swine flu shot before the rest of the population.
But inmates aren't getting any special treatment.
They will get the shot, or the mist, to protect against the H1N1 virus just like the rest of us, but all inmates will not be a priority.
The shots will be rolled out to prisons and jails next month. Health officials at the jails and high-risk inmates will get the vaccinations first.
The state has already administered about 200,000 shots to high-risk people in the general population.
Public health officials say it is important for high-risk inmates to get the shot because in a closed environment like a jail, the risk of spreading an infectious disease is very real.
State health officials want to make it clear that only prisoners who are at high-risk healthwise will get the vaccination before healthy people in the general population.
They say there's no cost to the state for any of the supply. The vaccinations are being paid for by the federal government.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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