Your editorial ( “Needed: A shot of good judgment,” ODE, Nov. 29) about the University Health Center’s management of flu vaccine was both inaccurate and unfair.
Dr. Gerald Fleischli is charged by the University with managing medical and health care resources, including flu vaccines, to protect and promote the health of currently enrolled students. As you know, the distribution system for flu vaccines this year has been unusually erratic and unpredictable. Health care providers have had to decide on an almost daily basis how best to distribute the dosages of vaccines as they become available. Dr. Fleischli has followed guidelines from the Communicable Disease Center, recommendations from the Student Health Advisory Council, and past practices in seeking to make these doses available first to student members of our community whose health is at risk, and, as supplies permit, to faculty and staff.
Student athletes are among the students whom the University Health Center serves. Medical staff at the center and at the Athletic Department have regularly recommended that student athletes with travel schedules be inoculated to reduce the health risks of exposure to communicable diseases while away from campus. This year, because of the unpredictable supply of vaccines, the number of doses available to athletes was reduced by three-quarters, from about 200 doses to only 50. The vaccine was also offered to other students whose health might be at risk, including students being treated by the center for diabetes, asthma or other particular medical conditions.
To date, student demand for flu vaccines has not exceeded the supply available at the health center. With the number of doses on hand anticipated to increase, the health center has extended the vaccine to healthy students and to healthy faculty and staff. The center even anticipates having enough doses on hand to hold special flu clinics on the next two Saturdays.
You may be disappointed with Dr. Fleischli’s medical judgment that some student athletes should have flu protection while traveling on behalf of the University of Oregon, but that doesn’t make his professional judgment “unethical.” That was a cheap shot! I hope you will now get your own flu shot and enjoy your holiday with protected health.