The nation’s supply of vaccine for the impending flu season took a big hit Thursday when Chiron Corp. announced it had found tainted doses in its factory.
The company said it will hold up shipment of about 50 million shots–about half the supply U.S. health officials had hoped to have on hand this year–while it investigates what went wrong and determines whether the vaccine is safe to use.
U.S. health officials said some people may not get flu shots when they want this year, but they were hopeful that Chiron’s production problems are only temporary. Chiron Chief Executive Howard Pien said the company hopes to ship 46 million to 48 million doses by early October, about month later than usual.
“Based on what we know, we don’t expect a major delay and we believe we can effectively vaccinate the population at risk,” said Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
