Santa Clara County Declares Swine Flu Emergency
Santa Clara County declared a local emergency yesterday, setting aside $500k for free clinics, which will administer the swine flu vaccine to thousands of uninsured residents when the vaccine becomes available in mid-October.
Most residents are encouraged to get the vaccine from their primary physicians or health care providers, and the clinics will fill in the large gaps of the community without access to these resources. Young people aged 5 to 24 will be first in line to receive the shots, followed by children 4 and younger, pregnant women, and the chronically ill.
As noted earlier this month, San Francisco has already been organizing free clinics for the City and County of SF.
Regarding trace amounts of mercury (aka Thimersonal) being in the vaccine, not all versions of the vaccine will contain Thimerosal. Also, the World Health Organization has been researching this issue since 1999, and they continue to reaffirm that there is "no evidence of toxicity in infants, children or adults exposed to thiomersal in vaccines." Further, Thimerosal consists of ethyl mercury, which has a short half-life (less than one week) compared to methyl mercury (1.5 months) making exposure to ethyl mercury in blood comparatively brief. "Ethyl mercury is actively excreted via the gut unlike methyl mercury that accumulates in the body."