Gearing Up for Swine Flu Vaccination
CHETRY: Pretty shot of the sun this morning in Atlanta, Georgia, where it is sunny and 67. A little bit later, it's also going to be mostly sunny, 85 degrees for a high. It's 52 minutes past the hour. Welcome to the Most News in the Morning. The federal government is planning to vaccinate millions of people in a matter of months against swine flu. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us from Atlanta right now. They're calling a race against time. Is this doable?</s>ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know what? I was at a meeting at the White House a couple of weeks ago, and they said, you know, look, this is going to be definitely a tough job. They're trying to vaccinate half the population in less than three months, Kiran. So there are logistical issues. They're going to set up clinics at churches and schools. But there are also some other issues. They're trying to convince people to get shots who really are not accustomed to getting flu shots every year. And Kiran, when I show you this list, you'll see what I mean. This is a list of the people who were supposed to get flu shots against h1n1 -- pregnant women, anyone ages six months to 24 years old, anyone ages 25 to 64 with health problems, parents and care givers of babies under the age of six months. This is a much younger group of people than who get the regular seasonal flu vaccine. And when you see the statistics I'm about to show you, you'll see why they want younger people to get vaccinated. The reason is that most of the hospitalizations and most of the deaths have been in young people -- 75 percent of hospitalizations have been in people under the age of 49, 60 percent of deaths under the age of 49. So Kiran, the challenge here for the CDC is that they're trying to convince younger people to get the shot than who were accustomed to getting it - Kiran.</s>CHETRY: I'm by no means anti-vaccine. I understand there's always a big debate, especially when new vaccines are introduced. But have they had enough time to test this for safety and for efficacy? I mean, given that, as we talked about, it was just months ago that they were scrambling to come up with the actual vaccine.</s>COHEN: Kiran, the CDC says that by the time the shot is on the market, which is expected to be in mid-October, they will have tested it in enough people to know it's safe and effective. And Kiran, you're right, it is a new vaccine in that it's against a virus that has never been seen before, certainly in anyone's recent memory. However, it is also just a flu shot. Flu shots are given every year. So in some ways this is new, but in some ways it's not.</s>CHETRY: And we also remember back to the 1976 effort, right, it was an immunization effort against swine flu back then, and people reported getting ill with -- I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it right. Is it Guillain Barre Syndrome?</s>COHEN: Guillain Barre Syndrome.</s>CHETRY: And there was a big backlash after that situation happened. Of course we've certainly made advances in medicine since then. Would you encourage people that you know to get this shot if it's available?</s>COHEN: You know what? I'm a reporter, so I never encourage anyone to do anything. But I think what's going to be important is once those clinical trials are done, you want to see, when they tested it, did anyone come down with this disease, GBS, that you mentioned. What we've heard so far is there have been no serious side effects and the clinical trials are underway.</s>CHETRY: All right, well, it's a huge undertaking, as you said, and a lot of challenges as we get ready to head into flu season. It's coming faster than we think. Elizabeth Cohen for us, thank you.</s>COHEN: Thanks.</s>CHETRY: All right. Well, still ahead, we are talking about ways people are keeping ahead of the recession. The shoe business looking for creative ways to stay ahead of difficult times for retail. We're going to introduce you to two twin brothers, Shane and Shawn, and how things are working for them. It's 55 minutes past the hour.