The influenza vaccine clinic scheduled for Nov. 16 was canceled Thursday.
Intravene, the private company scheduled to travel to Virginia Tech to conduct the vaccinations, canceled the event.
According to Intravene employee Shelby Davis, the scheduled vaccination was canceled because the company has “no supply of the H1N1 vaccine.”
“It’s a nationwide issue that there is a national shortage of the H1N1 vaccine,” said university spokesman Mark Owczarski. “So Virginia Tech with every other place that wants to immunize their communities are having a hard time getting the vaccine to do it.”
The U.S. Department of Health is in charge of distributing the vaccinations to various doctors, schools and small businesses such as Intravene, throughout the country.
With the overall shortage of the vaccination, the government only disperses the sparse vaccine the way they see fit.
“Pediatrics is who they normally disperse to first,” Davis said.
It remains unclear whether the university will be able to get a hold of the vaccine by the next scheduled clinic on Dec. 2.
“I’m not going to say 100 percent no,” Owczarski said. He specified that it is more likely the university will the vaccine later compared to now.
“I would hope by the end of November we’ll have enough for everyone.”