Not Pregnant? Cut In Line for H1N1 Vaccine

States Screen People Differently

According to CDC data, a total of 43,677 laboratory-confirmed cases of H1N1 were reported in the U.S. through July 2009 and researchers estimate that there may have been up to 5.7 million infections.

But some states have opted not to screen people based on risk, to avoid gumming the workflow.

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David Paulson, director of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said they encourage people to allow high risk groups be the first to receive the vaccine, but won't turn anyone away.

"Extensive screening would require a burden of proof... This would not only waste time, it would discourage people from getting the vaccine by making the entire process longer and more frustrating for everyone involved," Paulson said. "And everybody who gets vaccinated protects the population as a whole, so the sooner everybody gets vaccinated, the better."

While they will vaccinate anyone who asks, Paulson said their strategy is to distribute the bulk of the vaccine to providers within target communities, such as pediatricians, family practitioners and OB-GYNs.

Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., added that "the issue is that health care workers staffing these clinics are overwhelmed as it is -- they don't have time, nor should they be 'vaccine cops' doing detective work to determine is the person in front of them being honest."

Some Type of Screening Important, Doctors Say

Still, some doctors insist that a perfunctory screening method would not compromise efficiency or a patient's privacy.

"If priority strategies are to mean anything, they have to have teeth... Honor-based systems usually don't work, especially when health and life are involved," said Robert Field, a health law professor at Drexel University.

And several states have developed their own systems to ensure the majority of the people receiving H1N1 vaccines have the greatest need.