Davis distributing FluMist vaccine

FARMINGTON — Now that FluMist vaccine for the H1N1 virus has arrived in Davis County, the county's health department began distributing it to certain groups Wednesday.

The vaccine will be available to healthy people ages 2 to 24, health-care workers and emergency services personnel younger than 50, as well as healthy people who have household contact with infants younger than 6 months old.

The Davis County Health Department received 3,100 doses of the vaccine, which contains a live but weakened version of the H1N1, or swine flu, virus. Because of that, the vaccine is not to be taken by children younger than 2, people older than 50, pregnant women or people with a weakened immune system.

A future injectable vaccine is expected to be available for people who can't take FluMist.

Davis County will distribute the FluMist vaccines free of charge at its health clinics in Clearfield and Woods Cross.

The Clearfield clinic is located at 140 E. Center on the second floor of the Heritage Senior Activity Center in Clearfield. It is open from 8 to 11:45 a.m. and 1 to 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The Bountiful-Woods Cross clinic, 596 W. 750 South in Woods Cross, has the same operating hours but is open Tuesday and Thursday.

Health Department spokesman Bob Ballew said his department expects to receive 3,100 doses in the next shipment, as well.

On Tuesday, Health Department Director Lewis Garrett said he expects to begin operating mass clinics at the Davis Conference Center and the Bountiful Regional Center by the end of October.

Mass clinics are designed to immunize a large number of people very quickly. Between 600 and 1,000 people an hour could be immunized at each location.

Both sites have large parking lots and are located at opposite ends of the county. Clinics will alternate between the two locations during the week, Garrett said.

It will cost the health department $800 a day for each day it uses the Davis Conference Center, Garrett said.

Though the department will make vaccines available to the Clearfield Job Corps and hospitals, it won't distribute them to pharmacies.

"We're going out of our way," Garrett said, "so people don't get charged for this vaccine."

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