Minn. has 6 more swine flu deaths

BLAINE, Minn. - Hundreds of people turned out for a mass swine flu clinic in Anoka County on Wednesday, the first day anyone in Minnesota could get vaccinated with the state Health Department's blessing.

The clinic was scheduled to start at 1 p.m., but nurses started giving flu shots and squirting nasal mists to early arrivals nearly two hours before the official start. An official said 150 people had been vaccinated by 1:15 p.m. and about 500 by 3:30 p.m.

Many were like Bill Haugen, 31, of Andover, and Janet Lundeen, 64, of New Brighton who couldn't get the vaccine before Wednesday because they weren't in one of the priority groups designated by federal health officials.

Those groups included people younger the 25 years, pregnant women, health care workers, children and adults with certain underlying health conditions and those who care for infants. In Minnesota, that's an estimated 2.7 million people.

Haugen said he wanted to get vaccinated as quickly as possible because he was concerned about his children, ages 1 and 4. "I don't want to bring it home to my kids," he said at the clinic at the National Sports Center in Blaine.

Lundeen was there with her two grandchildren, ages 4 and 6, and their mother. "I want to stay healthy," Lundeen said. "I don't want to get the flu. I don't want to give it to my grandchildren or anyone else."

Another apparent benefit of making the vaccine available to all is that family members can prod each other into going out on a cold December day for a vaccination.

Also Wednesday, the Health Department reported that swine flu activity in the state remained low for the second week of December, although six new swine flu deaths were confirmed bringing the state's total to 50.

On Monday, the Health Department announced that clinics could open up vaccinations to anyone starting on Wednesday. The clinic put on by the Anoka County Community Health Department at the sports complex was the first in the metro area to take advantage of it.

Anoka County Community Health Department Director Rina McManus said she couldn't predict how the state's announcement would affect turnout at her clinic, but she said anything that gets more vaccine into the community was good.

"We want to get as much immunity in the community as possible," she said.

Many people are vaccinated at their doctor's offices instead of mass clinics, and spokesmen for HealthPartners Clinics and Park Nicollet Health Services both reported a spike in calls for vaccine appointments after the Health Department's announcement.

The state has received about 1.5 million doses of the vaccine. That's not enough to vaccinate everyone in the priority groups, but the Health Department determined enough people in those groups had been given the chance to get vaccinated.

Minnesota was one of several states in the Upper Midwest that announced it would open its swine flu clinics in the past few days, including Iowa, Wisconsin, South Dakota and Illinois.

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said opening the clinics was always expected when vaccine supply caught up to the demand from the priority groups.

"It's pretty much as planned," he said.

Flu viruses are notoriously unpredictable, but Osterholm said there's chance for a third wave of infections later this winter if enough people don't get their flu shots. "We need really desperately to get people vaccinated," he said.

The letter from CDC Director Thomas Frieden said it was appropriate to open up the clinics in areas where the demand for vaccine from the priority groups had been met.