CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A few months ago there wasn't enough swine flu vaccine to go around.
"We were kind of in a perfect storm where the flu was here and not enough vaccine," said Josh Rimany, owner of Dilworth Drug. "We were waiting, waiting and waiting."
Fast forward a few months to now and it's a different kind of waiting game.
"We've had very little in the last few weeks, but we've done a couple here and there every week, so they're trickling in," Rimany said about administering the vaccine.
Dilworth Drug has more than 100 vaccines left, which will expire in a few weeks. The Mecklenburg County Health Department has thousands.
"We gave about 70,000 and we've got a little over 20,000 on hand," said Dr. Stephen Keener, medical director of the health department.
Keener said some of those vaccines will expire in just a few days.
"We'd certainly like to administer it if people would like to get it," he said. "If we don't administer it and it expires, then we'll dispose of them like we normally do any leftover seasonal vaccine."
So how did we go from a shortage to a surplus?
"People, I think, saw that we had mild flu illness, relatively speaking, and so the amount of vaccine quickly outpaced the number of people who were demanding or desiring the vaccine," Keener said.
Free vaccines available
The health department has partnered up with some local pharmacies that are no longer charging for the H1N1 shot. If you'd like a free vaccine, visit one of these locations:
Dilworth Drug, 1235-J East Blvd.
Family Care Specialty Pharmacy, 9740-B University City Blvd.
Giant Genie, 5123-A South Blvd.
Pike's Pharmacy, 2133 Shamrock Drive
Randolph Medical Pharmacy, 3541 Randolph Road
Walker's Drug Store, 4390 Colwick Road
