Public Health Office Tries to Set Timeline

The state of Maine has decided to take its dosages of H1N1 flu vaccine and distribute it to school age children.

That is prompting some schools and parents to ask if New Hampshire is doing the same thing.

Deputy state Epidemiologist Jody Dionne-Odom says that’s not how the Granite State has chosen to prioritize its vaccine supply.

TAPE: the reason we didn’t go that way is because we didn’t think it would be fair...to send 10, 20, or 200 vaccines to a school with 1-2000 students.

Instead, Dionne-Odom the state is first targeting its limited doses to high-risk children and healthcare workers.

She says the state hopes to receive sufficient supply over to make the vaccine to children 6 months to 4 years old by Thanksgiving time.

If doses come in as planned, schools will be able to hold clinics before the end of the calendar year.