Let’s see.  I think the very first thing I heard about the H1N1 vaccine availability was “mid-October.”

Oh, but there are problems.  We’re going to need to push that back.  We ask that you please bear with us.

Until sometime this weekend, or perhaps even this morning, my sons’ school’s web site said November 9.  Now, it has been “postponed due to a delay in receiving the vaccine.  At this time a future date has not been set.  More information will be posted as it becomes available.”

Some of this would have been a problem no matter how it was distributed and communicated.  There have been some interesting challenges in vaccine production, as this article details.  I think the political component here—an administration overly concerned with its image and not reality on the ground—is maddening, though.  Tevi Troy posts at Critical Condition today (emphasis mine):

According to the article, the government was aware in September that the vaccine amounts they were promising would not be available, yet it is only recently, in the face of obvious shortages and people being turned away from clinics, that they have lowered their estimates from 40 million available doses to 28 million. This was only one of a number of reduced estimates dating back to late July, when the government was predicting having 160 million available doses by this time.

The problem here is not just the vaccine shortfall, although we clearly need more vaccine supply, and soon, to deal with the H1N1 flu strain. The problem is that government credibility is one of the most valuable and necessary commodities in a crisis; loss of that credibility could lead to greater problems down the road.