Adventures in Flu Shot Clinic Land

[Guest guest]

I've seen them called `influenza fairs' now, rather than `clinics'. Whee.

If you would like to find out what happens to people who try to get information on the thimerosal content of flu shots, here is a little timeline (as accurate as my notes and recollection allow) of my info quest:

End of October—

I get a reply from April S., Consumer Response Representative at Walgreens. I've written Walgreens with concerns about the flu shots and the flu shot clinics they are offering at local stores in my area. The reply reads:

October 23, 2007Dear Robin Nemeth,Thank you for taking your time to contact our Corporate Offices. Weappreciate hearing from our Thank you for taking your time to contact ourCorporate Offices. We appreciate hearing from our customers and value allcomments received.The flu shots use thimerosal as a preservative, which is mercury-based butthe mercury levels in the preservative are very low (it is the same stuffused in most contact lense solutions). If you have a mercury allergy, werecommend that you do not get a flu shot.Again, thank you for letting us know about your satisfaction. We trulyappreciate your thoughtfulness.Sincerely,April S.Consumer Response RepresentativeRef # 1257213

Wednesday Nov. 7—

I receive a letter from Ms. Parent, of CVS/pharmacy, addressing my concerns about the flu shots being administered at local CVS stores. I'd sent her a letter wanting to know if they contain more than trace amounts of thimerosal. She suggests I call Maxim at 1-800-796-2946.

Looking for flu shot clinics in the area, online, I find that Maxim Health Systems has also contracted with Giant Eagle, Walmart, and CVS to provide flu shot clinics.

I call Maxim. I speak with someone named , who doesn't want me to know his last name. isn't a clinician and that's why he can't tell me a lot. I ask him what percentage of the flu shots they are administering have trace amounts or less of thimerosal. He doesn't know for sure, but guesses they are 60 percent Glaxo Kline's Fluarix (which has 1mcg thimerosal. This is trace, I don't care about it that much) and 40 percent Sanofi-Pastor's Fluzone ( this one has twenty five mcg thimerosal). But, he tells me, I shouldn't worry because all of the people who get a shot are warned that there might be trace amounts of mercury. (25 mcg isn't considered `trace'. I tell him this.) He tells me he will have a supervisor call me back. It's about 11:00 am.

Supervisor from Maxim calls me. He tells me his name but rather fast and it sounds garbled and I don't get it. I ask him what percentage are thimerosal free. And I ask him why, if the Department of Health and Human Services is working to remove thimerosal from childhood vaccines, does Maxim continue to administer vaccines that have twenty five micrograms of thimerosal in them? He couldn't answer these questions. He did, however, tell me that ninety nine percent of children are given thimerosal free influenza vaccines. I asked him how he knows this, what his source for this information is. He thought he read it somewhere is what he tells me. I am skeptical that this is true, but that's ok because I hear a lot of stuff and then later on I can't remember where I heard it or read it. He asks me why I want to know, what I hope to accomplish, and I tell him that I'm hoping to find someone who can tell me why, if the DHHS is working to remove thimerosal from vaccines, there is still thimerosal in vaccines. Someone who is willing to give me their name, and who is willing to tell me why they think that might be. He says to me that the CDC says it's safe, and that this isn't a court of law, and "good luck with that." I ask him for his name. He tells me that he doesn't think I need that information. I hang up.

I call the local Giant Eagle store, to tell someone there how my conversation with Maxim went, and to try to find out whose decision it was to contract with them to do the flu clinics. They can't help me, but tell me to contact the corporate office, so I do. They either can't help me there, or else I get disconnected, (I forget which). But later on I get a call from Betty McGury (spelling?) from the Giant Eagle corporate office. Her title is something like the Administrative Assistant to the Director of Pharmacy Sourcing. She says she'll transfer me to someone who can help, but then I get disconnected. I call her back and leave a message for her to call me back.

I call the local Walmart store, and they tell me to call the corporate office, so I do. Someone named Crystal, Consumer Relations, tells me that Maxim isn't doing the flu shots for Walmart, but Novartis Theraflu is. I call Novartis and a woman says no, they're not doing anymore clinics. (Websites I look at confirm that while they did clinics in my area Walmart stores in October, they no longer do them. Maxim is doing them in November and December) I call Crystal back, it's about 2:30 pm, and tell her actually Maxim is doing the flu clinics, not Novartis. I tell her I want to contact the person who made the decision to contract with Maxim, because of my concerns about the flu shots, and the lack of information I received when I called Maxim. She tells me to call 800.228.8813, and I ask if that is a number for someone with Walmart and she says it is. I ask her who I would be speaking with, there at that number, and she says "I don't know" and so I ask her what their title is or what department they work in. She says "hold on a minute", comes back five or ten minutes later, and says "literacy helpline". I say "why would I want to speak with somebody from literacy helpline?", and get disconnected. It's 2:54 pm.

I call back. This time I get someone named Chandra. She asks if I would mind holding while she researches this. I say "no", knowing it is a rhetorical question.

"Call the Walmart home office at 479.273.4000", she tells me. "Speak with Pharmacy and Merchandizing". So I do. Someone there named a tells me to call Vendor Relations at 479. 273.4133. Someone at that number answers and says "Supplier Development". It's now 3:07. That person can't help me, transferrs me to someone from the `Other Income' department. He is away from his desk so a I leave a message asking him to call me back.

Late afternoon. Somebody from Giant Eagle calls. She says her name is Carol Seward and is the Manager of Client Services for Pharmacy. She can't tell me what percentage of the flu vaccines that are administered in the flu shot clinics are thimerosal free (or trace amount), but she seems nice and she tells me she'll have someone else call me.

Around five pm. Somebody from Walmart calls. Says I should talk to Sahar Gibson, Pharmacy Merchandizing Coordinator, at 479.273.6480. I tell her I want to talk to the person who made the decision to contract the flu shot clinic in the local Walmart stores, and she said she doesn't know if that information can be given out. She says she'll find out and call me back.

Around five thirty—somebody from Giant Eagle calls me. Says his name is Greg Carlson. I explain to him about my phone call to Maxim. About how I am concerned that I didn't get answers to the questions I had, but did get some information that would've been quite reassuring had I not known or strongly suspected it to be false. How no one there would tell me to whom I was speaking. He tells me that they rely on CDC information, which says that thimerosal is safe. I tell him yes but the DHHS has recommended removal from all vaccines. He tells me that he understands my concerns, and that his cousin is a chiropractor and has concerns about vaccines and while he doesn't necessarily agree, he understands that his cousin and his views are deserving of some respect. He says he will contact his local supplier at Maxim and talk with him about this.

Thursday morning. I get a call from someone at Maxim, who asks me what he can do for me. I tell him "first off, tell me your name, because I'm not really interested in spending any more time getting faulty information from people who aren't willing to stand behind what they say enough to say who they are, before they say it." He tells me he is Steve Polito, National Director of Maxim Health System. I ask him what percentage of flu shot doses they administer are thimerosal free(or trace). He tells me he doesn't know. He tells me it depends on the area. He says they can't get all thimerosal free vaccines, because their supply of those is limited. I ask him if it concerns him that the DHHS is working toward removal of all thimerosal from vaccines. He says no because the CDC says it's safe, and because they are following state laws. I ask him for his phone number. It's 410.910.1500. I want it because, as I tell him, I am so overjoyed to finally find a person who is willing to talk to me about this, who feels confident in what he's doing ("we don't make the flu shots" he told me a couple of times), and who is willing to give me his name. He tells me that he will talk to the supervisors and ask them to refer people to someone else (perhaps he says he'll ask them to "refer them to me" but I'm not sure about this), if they can't answer peoples questions. I tell him that when I worked as an engineer, if anyone had called our office and said "I have some concerns about these drawings, can you tell me who's responsible for them so that I can speak with them?", if I'd answered "I don't think you need that information" I believe I would've got my rear end booted out the door faster than I could even think about clearing out my desk.

After the call I wonder what the state laws are like. Apparently there isn't one that makes it illegal to sell flu shots with twenty five micrograms of thimerosal. I'm sure there aren't any state laws that make it illegal to inject somebody with some horrible chemical that would instantly make their skin turn all purple and green and ooze smelly pus, either. I know I still wouldn't want to do it to someone.

Ah well, never mind. Thimerosal is safe. The CDC says so.

I go to a CDC website, which confirms that there may not be enough thimerosal free flu vaccines for three year olds.

I call the CDC at 1.800.CDCINFO and press the voice menu button for `General Healthline'. "Steve Polito, the National Director at Maxim Health Systems, tells me that they can only get a limited number of thimerosal free flu vaccines. Why do you think that is?", I ask the person who answers my phone. And I ask "And how large of a supply is there?" It's 11:42 am. The woman on the phone asks me to wait a few moments. Then she starts talking to me and it sounds like she is reading from something. "Most flu vaccines have thimerosal. Some only have trace amounts." She continues on a few more moments. I say that I understand that some flu shots have a trace amount. But what I want to know is how many have more than that. She says she'll look and I wait a few more minutes. I say "isn't there anyone you could connect me with who might know something about this off of the top of their head?" and she tells me that if I want accurate information I'll have to wait while she searches. I wait a few more minutes and then she says she'll transfer me to a Public Health Specialist.

I ask the Public Health Specialist if she can give me her name. She is not allowed to give out her name. I ask her why not and she says she doesn't know. I ask her if she's ever wondered why, and she says "I'm just here to help you". I say "can you transfer me to someone who CAN tell me their name?" She transfers me to someone else.

"We can't give out names", this person says. "For security reasons. We get threats. Lots of really crazy people out there. I say "have I threatened you?" and she says no and I say "so it's CDC policy to assume anyone who calls could be threatening?" and she says "I will hang up if you don't have a question for me." I tell her that actually I'd meant that last thing that I'd said as a question. She says she's a medical person and is there to answer medical questions. I notice that she sighs a great deal. I can sympathize.

I tell her I really would rather get information from somebody willing to tell me who they are, but ok, I figure I'm here and I've been waiting this long, I might as well ask. "What percentage of flu vaccines produced have less than 1 mcg of thimerosal?" I say. She tells me I ought to try contacting the manufacturers. But she'll see what she can find out for me. I say "isn't there anyone there, what with all of the concerns about thimerosal and autism, who has any idea without having to spend a lot of time researching it?" and she says something to the effect of how everything has to be very accurate and so it has to be on the screen. I say "do you mean documented somehow, everything we say?" and she says yes. And I say that I don't mind if she does that, records our conversation somehow. She says she still will have to research the matter. Or that she can give me a number for what she called, I think, a `case file'. I ask her to research it for me.

While she's presumably doing this she says she can give me the numbers of manufacturers of thimerosal free vaccines and she does.

Sanofi-Pastor 800.822.2463

Novartis ("or it might say Chiron", she says, "but that's Novartis") 800.244.7668

GSK 866.475.8222

Medimmune 877.633.4411

She asks for my phone number so she can call me back. I give it to her. She doesn't promise to call me back, says she can't, but she'll try. She asks for my name and I tell her. She asks me to spell it, and I start to, and then I pause and I say "wait.. wait.. Should I be afraid, you think?"

She sighs and hangs up on me. I get the feeling she might have been offended.

I skip the CDC survey that every caller gets to take. The questions are all multiple choice. I suspect I won't be happy with any of the choices I'd be given.

12:15 pm. It's time to find something positive and cheerful to do.

Robin Nemeth