BY JERRIE WHITELEY

HERALD DEMOCRAT

As the middle of October rolls around, the only thing harder to find in North Texas than a bright sunny day is a dose of the flu vaccine.

On the same day that Honey Grove Independent School District closed for a week due to absences from the flu, the Grayson County Health Department and most area pharmacies report that they don't have enough of the vaccine on hand to advertise. Some locations report being completely out while others say they are getting sporadic shipments with varying amounts of the vaccine.

Honey Grove ISD will be closed from Tuesday through Friday and will reopen on Monday, Oct. 19.

"Over the past few days, the attendance rate for the district has fallen below 80 percent. The Texas Education Agency recommends that when the attendance rate falls below 85 percent, schools should seriously consider closing," said a press release from Jeff Clark, superintendent of Honey Grove ISD.

Although the schools are closed, the Honey Grove football game against Bells on Friday will be played, if possible. The Warrior Band will also participate in the Area Marching Contest on Saturday, if possible. All other extracurricular activities and school events are canceled.

The Grayson County Health Department advises residents who still need the vaccine to check with their primary care physician for a dose. Otherwise, the best bet is to practice what Amanda Ortez, public information officer for the health department calls "good non-pharmacological interventions," like good hand washing and social distancing.

Ortez reminds people to stay away from those people they know are sick. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that those with flu stay at home until they home for at least 24 hours after their fever ends. That, the CDC says, should be an absence of fever without the use of a fever reducing medicine.

It can be hard, she acknowledged, sometimes to stay home when one is sick, but that, Ortez said, is the reason why it is important to have a contingency plan in place at work.

Employees should, she said, talk with their employers about the possibility of working from home or alternating their schedule so that they don't have to be at work when they are ill or have to work with others who might be ill.

The important thing, she said, is to stop the spread of the influenza.

She said the county, and many other providers, were caught short this year when the vaccine that they ordered was not delivered. Several producers stopped producing the vaccine for the general flu when they started producing the vaccine for the H1N1 strain of flu.

Ortez said the Grayson County Health Department currently gets so few doses of the regular flu vaccine at a time that they have to offer it on a first come first served basis.

"Those who walk in and ask might find we have some available," Ortez said but she added that such a find will likely be rare.

The shortage is such that she said they are even reluctant to tell people over the phone that they have the vaccine on hand. "Because by the time they get over here, we might be out again."

Ortez said she anticipates that the Grayson County Health Department should have its major shipment of the vaccine for the H1N1 virus by the end of the month. That, however, will likely not be enough to accommodate beyond the at-risk populations of youngsters, those with compromised immune systems and those older than 65.