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Get Four
|  | OCTOBER 11, 2004
By Amy Tsao Corporate Flu Shots Are Looking Sick No, you probably can't get vaccinated at work this year -- but chances are you'll be fine anyhow With Chiron (CHIR ) suddenly unable to supply some 48 million flu-vaccine doses, the Centers for Disease Control has recommended that only "high risk" people be vaccinated. In total, 83.1 million vaccinations were administered in the 2003-04 flu season. Of those, some 12.5 million went to healthy adults, many of whom likely got their shots courtesy of an employer. The CDC's official recommendations for flu vaccination have never included healthy, working-age adults. However, the benefits of preventing flu haven't been lost on Corporate America. In recent years, companies have put great stock in vaccinating workers. After all, less flu means fewer sick days -- and that's just good business sense. "Working adults who get flu are the ones who account for a huge amount of economic loss for the country," says Harry Greenberg, associate dean at Stanford University Medical School. The estimated annual cost of flu to the U.S.: From $11 billion to $18 billion, with between 5% and 20% of the U.S. population catch the flu each year. If you're accustomed to getting your flu shot at work, this season's vaccine situation raises lots of questions. Am I going to be able to get a flu shot at work this year? Much depends on what third-party vendors, who distribute or carry out the vaccinations, decide to do. One such company, Maxim Health Systems, which holds between 7,000 and 10,000 flu-vaccination clinics for corporations nationwide, says it's "canceling all flu clinics at corporations, as these sites serve a broader range of individuals, many of whom are not high-risk." Steven Wright, national director of wellness services for Maxim, says it's acting in accordance with CDC recommendations, but it -- and other companies -- may have little choice. "A large portion of what we were supposed to get is being diverted by Aventis Pasteur (AVE ) [the remaining provider of flu vaccine] to the public-health sector," says Wright. Aventis is said to be working with CDC on a redistribution strategy. Publisher The McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP ), which owns BusinessWeek and BusinessWeek Online, said its third-party provider of flu vaccine cannot supply the corporation with any flu shots this season. Other suppliers it called in recent days also had no flu shots available, says Theresa Rice, McGraw-Hill's manager of data administration. Dallas-based Southwest Airlines (LUV ) and Atlanta-based Delta Airlines (DAL ) postponed their programs "indefinitely," while Electronic Data Systems (EDS ) in Plano, Tex., property manager Shorenstein Realty Services in Chicago, and drug company Abbott Labs (ABT ) in Waukegan, Ill., have canceled theirs altogether. What if my company has already received its supply of the flu vaccine? Companies surveyed by BusinessWeek reporters say they plan to be good corporate citizens -- they'll sell or donate their vaccine stock to area hospitals, nursing homes, or clinics that deal with those at higher risk. "We would never vaccinate healthy people if the community didn't have enough," says Dr. Bob Galvin, director of global health-care at General Electric (GE ). Galvin expects GE will have access to very limited quantities of flu vaccine. What if I really think I need a flu shot? Contact your primary-care physician. But be aware that even places that offer flu shots as a public service, such as drugstores, aren't vaccinating everyone -- just those they determine to be at high risk. Who is at high risk for the flu? The CDC's revised guidelines defines this group as: children age 6 to 23 months, adults over 65, those with chronic illnesses, health-care workers, women who'll be pregnant during flu season, nursing-home residents, and caregivers to children youngers than 6 months. What's the health impact of the vaccine shortage? It's impossible to guess how many more people will come down with flu this season than usual. But for healthy, working-age adults, not getting a flu vaccination isn't worth panicking over: You may catch the flu, but chances are excellent you'll survive. Don't forget that the flu shot doesn't promise 100% protection. The vaccine is formulated months ahead of the actual flu season and doesn't always combat the strains of the virus that end up affecting Americans. So, even if you're vaccinated, you can still get infected. For companies, productivity could decline during the season since it's likely more employees will get sick. And the public-health impact could be serious, cautions Dr. Britain Nicholson, chief medical officer at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, "if we have a virulent flu virus." It's especially crucial that health-care workers be vaccinated, says Nicholson, since medical facilities could end up understaffed if workers are out sick. Is the government doing anything to get the vaccine to the most at-need people? CDC has no authority over companies' vaccination plans. Its revised guidelines are meant to help companies and health-care facilities act in the best interest of public health, says CDC spokesman Glen Nowak. "We would hope [companies] wouldn't vaccinate healthy people who don't fall into the [high-risk] criteria," Nowak says. Cities and states will almost certainly be more aggressive. Already they're taking the lead in working with distributors and private companies to redistribute flu shots to the most at-risk populations. Florida's government has said it will allow private and public local health-care providers to buy and sell the vaccine to each other. Nebraska officials are urging that businesses and health-care providers vaccinate only those under the CDC guidelines. Governors could declare a state of emergency and confiscate flu-shot inventory if vaccine redistribution doesn't go well. The Chicago Public Health Dept. requested that local companies with planned flu programs partner with it to reallocate supplies to high-priority patients. In a typical year, the health department gives 50,000 doses of flu vaccine between October and November largely to the elderly, says department spokesman Tim Hadac. But this season the department has only 7,500 doses. "If we don't get any more, that isn't going to carry us through November. It's the lowest we have ever had," says Hadac. Could this happen again next year? Given all the criticism being paid to Chiron and the government for the shortage, it's not likely. Still, Chiron's manufacturing problems may not be remedied in time for the 2005-06 flu season. In any case, both Aventis, the other primary producer of flu shots for the U.S., and Medimmune (MEDI ), which makes the inhaled flu vaccine FluMist, will increase their production for the next season. So, what should the government and vaccine companies be doing? At the very least what has happened this year will force health authorities to reexamine the precarious nature of the flu-vaccination system. Manufacturing relies on decades-old technology, and only two companies provide the entire supply for the U.S., which is the world's biggest consumer of flu shots. "This is a wake-up call to the country in terms of how we're managing the flu vaccine," says GE's Galvin. "Sometimes it takes a crisis to figure out what policy should be."  With bureau reports Tsao is a reporter for BusinessWeek Online in New York Edited by Patricia O'Connell Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | |
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