Via YLE: New Swine Flu Vaccination Drive Planned. Excerpt:
Fewer Finns than expected have been vaccinated against the H1N1 influenza. With only about half of the population having had the swine flu jab, there are at least 1.5 million unused doses left.
Health clinic staff say that the number of people seeking shots dropped off sharply around last March.
The remaining doses are still usable until the end of next May. Thus Finland is not in the same situation as the Netherlands, which is disposing of some 17 million unused doses that will soon pass their expiration dates.
Many other countries seem to have wasted large sums in acquiring the swine flu shots. The Council of Europe is looking into whether the World Health Organisation was too hasty in declaring swine flu as a pandemic.
The value of the shots remaining on the shelf in Finland is about 10.5 million euros. However the state's acquisition of the vaccine was not overblown, says Senior Researcher Rose-Marie Ölander of the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
Public health authorities believe that at least some of the remaining doses will be used this autumn. They are planning a new campaign to encourage the young in particular to get the jab.
