In an effort to help local and state health officials across the country redistribute flu vaccine to the “neediest” areas, the CDC recently launched a website that helps officials determine where vaccine supplies are “abundant and where they are scarce,” the New York Times reports. Because most health care providers are private entities, public health officials have little “information about how many flu vaccine doses are shipped and to whom”; the new website, however, lists the names of hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes that ordered the vaccine and how many doses they received. The CDC was unable to list the names of private physicians who received shots, but the website does list the counties in which the private practices are located, making is easier for health officials in rural areas to identify which physicians have the vaccine. While some health officials say the “website has been useful,” others have had difficulty accessing the secured site, noting that there are “still kinks in the system” (Harris, 10/27).
