Flu Clinics Won't Turn Back Non-Residents

SILVER SPRING, Md. (WUSA) -- Sharon Lyons Watts, a pregnant Silver Spring mother of two, is among the growing number of people who find themselves crossing jurisdictional lines to get the H1N1 vaccine.

For two weeks, Sharon tried to get the shot for her son Zane who suffers from severe asthma. Zane's pediatrician didn't have it and Sharon's primary care physician could give it to her but not to Zane. Sharon stood in line at a Montgomery County flu clinic last week but they ran out before her turn came up. Local pharmacies in Virginia saw their supplies exhausted minutes before she could get there.

Sharon became increasingly concerned that Zane would catch the flu and become hospitalized with breathing complications. So she went to a flu clinic in Fairfax and told the staff there that she lived in Montgomery county. She was not turned away. Her case is not uncommon.

9News Now has learned that local health authorities in DC and the northern Virginia and Maryland suburbs  have agreed not to require proof that the folks lining up for flu shots are actually residents of the jurisdiction sponsoring the clinic.