Axelrod: Swine flu vaccine production finally catching up

Americans are getting frustrated with the pace of swine flu vaccinations, but a top Obama administration official said Sunday that vaccine production is catching up with demand.
 
“We’re going to be caught up in a week,” said White House adviser David Axelrod.
 
{mosads}Administration officials have acknowledged that getting shots has been frustrating. Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) sent a highly critical letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius demanding details about the lag in production.
 
But the administration has started sending out the message that production will speed up soon.

 
Officials had projected that as many as 120 million doses of vaccine would be available by last week, but later downgraded that projection to 40 million and then 28 million. The Centers for Disease Control officials said 26.6 million were available Friday. White House officials say 28 million were available by Sunday, and by Monday it was up to 30 million.
 
{mosads}”We did represent to the public what we were told by the manufacturer,” Axelrod said.
 
At the same time, lawmakers in both parties are criticizing decisions to include prisoners in the priority groups, including those at the detention center for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
 
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” House Minority Leader John Boehner said of giving the shots to the Guantanamo detainees. “The administration probably didn’t think it would be very popular either, that’s why they announced it on Friday night. We have prisoners in my own home county who are going to get H1N1 shots while there are vulnerable populations who want the shots who can’t get them. I just think that’s wrong.”
 
The Pentagon made the decision based on U.S. government assessments that people held in detention facilities are at high risk for the pandemic, a military spokeswoman told CNN.