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VERIFY: Are more shingles vaccines coming amid 'unprecedented' shortage?

QUESTION:

Are more shingles vaccines coming amid "unprecedented" shortage?

ANSWER:

Yes, but the backlog will stretch months into 2019.

SOURCES:

Sean Clements- spokesperson- GlaxoSmithKline (parent company of "Shingrix")

William Schaffner- Liason Representative for CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Amy Lanctot- CVS Health Senior Manager Public Relations

Allison Mack- Walgreens Co. Communications Manager

Alison Reeves- spokesperson for DC health

Kristen Kozlowski- Associate Director of Development- Bread for the City

Ann Canter Nickels- Assistant Vice President Public Relations & Communications Medstar Health

PROCESS:

Six months –that's how long Aline Martinez is preparing to wait for the shingles vaccine.

"I found out the wait list is so long and supplies are so short," Martinez wrote to the Verify team. "I'm 58. I don't want shingles."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that, due to high demand, shingles vaccines are hard to come by. Since the CDC says one-in-three Americans will get shingles in their lifetime, if you’re hoping to be one of the two-thirds who won’t, patience and persistence are going to be needed to navigate the current national shortage of the country’s most popular shingles vaccination.

Martinez asked our team of Verify researchers if anything is being done to restock pharmacies and hospitals in the DMV.

Here's why supplies are so low: There's a new vaccine, Shingrix, that's more than 90-percent effective at preventing shingles. It’s replacing an older shot, Zostavax, that is only 50-percent effective.

Shingrix got a big boost from a CDC committee last year when they named it the preferential brand and expanded vaccination recommendations to 50-year-olds. Previously, shingles shots were recommended for those 60-and-older.

"The difference between the two vaccines in their effectiveness was so profound that the ACIP [Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] did something very unusual for them, which was to express the specific preference," a liaison of the CDC sub-committee, William Schaffner, said. "That of course shifted essentially the entire marketplace."

And they are increasing production with new shipments every few weeks.

"Shingrix has been met by unprecedented demand by healthcare providers and patients," Sean Clements, a spokesperson for GlaxoSmithKline, said. "Providers are immunizing patients at a rate several times what was previously seen for shingles."

GlaxoSmithKline will begin shipping large volumes of the vaccine every two-to-three weeks to remediate the backlog.

"The vaccine typically takes six-to-nine months to produce, but we produced some of the critical elements to the vaccine before we had received FDA approval – in order to shorten the production cycle – so that we could respond quickly to demand," Clements said.

In the meantime, pharmacies and hospitals are telling patients to call back later.

CVS Health and Medstar are getting intermittent shipments. Walgreens advises customers to call before coming in.

And while you do need two doses for full effectiveness, experts say you should still try to get your hands on at least one dose.

"If you can get that first dose, do so, because that first dose does indeed provide some very substantial protection," Schaffner said. "Now most providers are prioritizing... people who received the first dose should get first in line for the second dose... pharmacies and clinics and doctors’ offices are prioritizing as they receive vaccines the completion of the series; how all the clinical trials were performed."

So we can verify, YES, shingles vaccine companies are ramping up production.

What should you do in the meantime? Keep calling your pharmacy.

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