Confusion and poor communication surrounding the Española School District’s distribution of the swine flu vaccine raised questions last week over whether Central Office administrators were being given priority over students and school staff.
School nurses began administering a batch of about 100 vaccine injections Dec. 10 to Española Middle School staff, District head nurse Karen Martinez said.
However, teachers and staff were cut off from receiving the vaccine for reasons that remained unclear for several days.
“They started giving us the shots, but then we got a phone call from somebody with the District telling us to stop,” middle school Principal Lewis Johnson said. “They didn’t give too many teachers the shots. Most people didn’t even know it was here. But why they did that I don’t know.”
On the heels of the phone call stopping the vaccinations, rumors began circulating that the vaccines had been rerouted to Central Office, and as of Tuesday, Johnson said he had no idea why the vaccinations had been stopped or where they ended up.
“I was waiting to get my shot with the secretary when they told us we couldn’t get it,” middle school librarian Elsa Trujillo said. “I think the kids should be first, but I’m hoping if there’s one left over I can get it. I have twin babies at home and want to try and protect them.”
Middle school nurse Josephine Baros refused to comment in detail on what happened, only confirming that she received a call from her superior, Martinez, telling her to stop distributing the vaccine. Martinez at first also refused to clear up the story for a reporter, and only answered the reporter’s questions when Superintendent Janette Archuleta called her Tuesday.
Martinez said the state Health Department had given the District the go-ahead to distribute vaccines to staff at several schools because virtually all of the District’s students who wanted a vaccine had received one. But Martinez soon realized the District was running low on injectable vaccines and might need to save some for students who could not receive the other form of the vaccine, which is a nasal mist, due to health conditions like asthma.
“That morning all the injectable vaccines were pretty much used up, so a team of nurses were contacted right away to put (the staff vaccinations) on hold,” Martinez said.
The District’s remaining 100 injectable vaccines were being stored at the high school as of Tuesday, and an additional 150 vaccines should make teacher and staff vaccinations possible by Friday, Martinez said.
Assistant Superintendent Dorothy Sanchez, and other Central Office employees, flatly denied the rumors that anyone at Central Office had received the vaccine.
“No one at Central Office has gotten a vaccination, nor have we had any vaccination sessions,” Sanchez said. “We would not do that, and I was shocked to hear about it.”
There was also confusion for some Abiquiú Elementary staff. Abiquiú educational assistant Arnie Jenkins said the school’s counselor Cheryl Monks told him the District was not providing the school with the vaccine because students and staff could get vaccinated at the Las Clinicas Del Norte in Abiquiú. However, he said his nurse practitioner at Las Clinicas told him he could not receive the vaccine at the clinic because he could get one through the schools.
“I guess they thought we were part of (the) Mesa Vista (School District),” Jenkins said.
But Las Clinicas Medical Director Suzanne Norman said all Abiquiú Elementary students and staff can come to the clinic to receive the vaccination.
“Miscommunication has been a real problem,” Norman said. “The H1N1 vaccination situation has rolled and changed from day one. It’s a moving target. When you hear that something is funny or not right, what it means is our public health system is responding to an unusual public health situation with whatever means are available.”
Department spokeswoman Deborah Busemeyer urged caution, saying no one knows when or if the virus will mutate and become more severe. However, Norman questioned the merits of the swine flu scare.
“It’s awful if you’re dead from it, but if you want to look at it in terms of statistics, in a larger, global sense, we didn’t know what was going to happen, and the statistics today are better than our seasonal flus,” Norman said. “In terms of the number of hospitalizations and deaths, there are far fewer individuals (than a seasonal flu outbreak). But (the virus) hasn’t mutated and hasn’t changed. The worst thing that’s happened is it gets younger-aged patients rather than old ones.”