Frederica Freyberg:
A week ago, we devoted a special one hour edition of Here & Now to preparing for the H1N1 virus. It was a call-in program and our phone banks were jammed. Hundreds of calls came to volunteers from Dean and UW Health. A week later the vaccine is about to arrive in Wisconsin. We want to get an update on the vaccine now with Dan Hopfensperger, the director of the Wisconsin Immunization program at the Department of Health Services and thanks very much for joining us.

Dan Hopfensperger:
Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:
Well, when will the H1N1 vaccine get to Wisconsin?

Dan Hopfensperger:
We started placing orders with the federal government yesterday. Actually, I'm sorry, on Wednesday. And we expect the vaccine to begin to arrive to providers in Wisconsin early to mid week next week.

Frederica Freyberg:
That's great news. Who will be first in line to get that?

Dan Hopfensperger:
Our primary focus, because it is a limited amount of vaccine, will be health care providers. We're distributing it for their staff and clinical entities and hospitals and large health systems for their health care worker staff.

Frederica Freyberg:
What's the schedule for rolling out more doses of it?

Dan Hopfensperger:
That is all based on the numbers of doses we will receive from the federal government. It's through the federal government, by the manufacturers. It's a little flexible right now as to how much that will arrive but it will be distributed on a population basis so we will get — the state of Wisconsin's population is about 1.8 percent of the national population so it should be under that percentage through that allocations.

Frederica Freyberg:
So we will have enough.

Dan Hopfensperger:
The intents is, yes, that there will be — as things roll out, there should be sufficient vaccine for any man, woman and child that wants it. Yes.

Frederica Freyberg:
And you say that the first shipments will come in for health care providers next week but is there any kind of ball park for when just, you know, everybody should be able to get it or at least those that are supposed to have it, like people under 24?

Dan Hopfensperger:
We are hoping to be able to hit more of the target groups, more towards mid-October and then having sufficient amount to do mass clinics toward mid-October and then have enough to do for local health departments to do community and school based clinics more toward the end of October, early November and after those — after the target groups are met, then open it up to anybody that really needs it or that really wants it.

Frederica Freyberg:
And do you think that most people will end up going to their health care provider or is the mission to kind of get it in schools so that you can take that population that needs it the most and do it right there during the day?

Dan Hopfensperger:
The plans are to try to do as many school based clinics as local health departments can handle and try to take care of many of the school age children through the schools, yes. But it will be a combination of administration both through the public and private sector.

Frederica Freyberg:
What do you think about the mercury-free vaccine? Can a parent or someone get it just for the asking?

Dan Hopfensperger:
It depends on what the allocations are and what we're able to ship to an individual provider. There will be some of that vaccine available but our stance is that the vaccine is safe, whether it be the thimerosal or the thimerosal-free so we would urge people to take that into consideration and just accept the vaccine available. Yes, in answer to your question.

Frederica Freyberg:
Do public health officials think that we will beat the clock on this, that people will get the vaccine before the big wave of H1N1?

Dan Hopfensperger:
Well, that is certainly the intent. I don't know. It's very hard to predict. But our stance is we are getting the vaccine out as quickly as possible. Now that it is available and trying to take care of the groups that are most susceptible to the complications of the disease or the disease itself.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. Good luck with all of that. Thank you very much.

Dan Hopfensperger:
Thank you.