The flu vaccine shortage and its consequences have hit home.

A clinic to administer flu shots was supposed to be held Oct. 20 in the Bakersfield College Student Health Center, but because of a shortage nationwide it was canceled, leaving many without much-needed shots as flu season set in.

“The company that produced the vaccine had its license suspended,” said Debra B. Strong, director of SHC.

The company, England-based Chiron, a major supplier of flu vaccines to the United States was found to have supplies of the vaccine contaminated.

Strong said the criteria used to determine who obtains the vaccine has been narrowed.

“Only those considered ‘high risk’ will get a flu shot,” she said. They include children under six, senior citizens (65 and older), those with a chronic illness, residents of nursing homes, pregnant women (in their second or third trimester) and health care workers.”

On Oct. 22, the Kern County Department of Public Health Services announced on its Web site that it will receive 50 percent of its order of flu vaccines next week.

The department has planned flu shot clinics for Nov. 8 in Bakersfield. They are from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Smoke Tree Mobile Estates, 4435 Hughes Lane; and from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Kern City, 1103 Pebble Beach Drive.

The U.S. government had relied on Chiron to produce the bulk of the vaccines, and when the contamination was found, health officials turned to the company, Aventis Pasteur, but the 55 million shots it produced were not enough, according to a recent Time magazine report.

The report notes that the U.S. government had only licensed these two companies.

Other Western governments in Europe allow more companies to manufacture the vaccine. Britain, for example licenses five and Germany eight.