Flu Vaccine Faces Hurdle

The rush to get swine flu vaccine out to millions of Americans has another hurdle.

The feds say they expect to start delivering the vaccine this week but local government budget cuts may slow the effort, the Wall Street Journal reports. Thousands of public-health jobs were cut in the last year, creating shortages of people who can administer the vaccine. Now local governments are looking for volunteers or private contractors.

Meanwhile, drug companies are continuing to make the stuff. The Food and Drug Administration last month approved vaccines made by Australia's CSL Ltd. and three big European companies—AstraZeneca Plc, Novartis AG, and Sanofi-Aventis SA. AstraZeneca's vaccine is a mist delivered through the nose and is made by its MedImmune division.

U.S. officials say 6 million to 7 million doses will be available this week, but the government ordered and plans to distribute 250 million in total. A distribution system has been set up to quickly get the vaccine out to 90,000 locations across the country, but administering at the local level will be tricky, the Journal reports.