Vaccine stocks run out

last updated 8 January 2015

Denver

Colorado, Texas, and several other states began rationing the flu vaccine this week after their supplies ran perilously low and the manufacturers of the shots announced that they had run out. “It’s all gone,” said a spokesman for one of the companies, Chiron. A near-record number of Americans rushed to get vaccinated after doctors warned that this year’s outbreak could be the worst in a generation. A particularly virulent strain of the virus is going around, and even the vaccine may not offer total protection. Influenza kills 36,000 Americans in a typical year, but the Centers for Disease Control said 70,000 could die before this flu season ends in March. “It’s pretty close to a crisis,” a hospital official said.