As the city prepared to open free clinics to dispense H1N1 swine flu vaccinations at six City College locations Saturday morning, health officials cautioned that the supply is more limited than they had hoped and that it would be reserved only for high-risk population groups.
The vaccines being administered are part of the 150,000 doses of the vaccine the city Health Department has received thus far from the federal government, Terry Mason, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said at a Friday news conference.
He stressed that the inoculations were for children, pregnant women, chronically ill and emergency medical service providers. Anyone wishing to get vaccinated at the free clinics should provide a driver's license or some proof of city residency, as well as some evidence they qualify as being in a high priority group, he said.
"We're setting down ground rules, and we're counting on people to do the right thing. We will take a common sense approach to this," he said.
"What we don't want to see is people storming these clinics for vaccine," he said, noting that the clinics will offer the vaccinations three times a week for four weeks.
The clinics will be at Kennedy King, Olive Harvey, Richard J. Daley, Truman and Wright Colleges and at Arturo Velasquez Institute every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and every Tuesday and Thursday from 3 to 8 p.m.
Mason said most people should get vaccinations from their family doctors as they come available.
Hundreds of parents were lining up with their children in tow all this week at The Northwestern Children's Practice, a private clinic at 680 N. Lake Shore Drive, one of the clinics that has received the H1N1 vaccine ordered through the Health Department.
"I had been calling the clinic every couple of days to see if the vaccine had come in," said Pam Derl, who brought her daughters Sabrina, 8, and Alyssa, 6, to the clinic Friday.
"They had the nasal spray form first, but I wanted my kids to get the injectable form," she said, "and when I called this morning, they said they had it."
Dr. Daniel Weissbluth, a staff pediatrician, said it the clinic had received enough vaccine to give provide it to the children "of all of our established families."
Meanwhile, classes were to resume at St. Charles East High School Monday after high rates of student absences -- many due to flu-like symptoms -- forced school officials to close the school for three days.
--William Mullen
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