Until Wednesday, the H1N1 swine flu vaccine priority list started with first responders, pregnant women, people living with newborns, anyone six months to 24 years old, and those with serious health problems.
But that list was changed on Thursday. Now the state's first 237,000 doses of flu mist will be directed to children who are two and three years old.
It's an interesting change, considering that 20 percent of the swine flu hospitalizations so far have been children up to four years old, with 52 percent for people between the ages of five and 24.
With so few doses coming out in this first batch of swine flu vaccine to Texas, the state made the decision to get it to the most vulnerable of the high-risk groups. Two and three-year-olds get vaccinated first, since doctors say their breathing can weaken rapidly.
"Children under five - and particularly under three - tend to have more respiratory issues when they get upper respiratory viruses," explained pediatrician Dr. Charles Dunlap.
So parents like Lina Martinez - who brought her three-year-old boy in for a seasonal flu shot on Thursday - will return in a week or two for the swine flu vaccine.
"I've had plenty of friends at school, their kids getting sick, so I don't want him to get sick on me," Martinez said.
But that means older children, caregivers and first responders - who are also high-priority - don't get the vaccine yet.
So eight-year-old Alexa and 12-year-old Juvenal del Bosque - who received Flu Mist does of seasonal flu vaccine - won't be eligible for the swine flu vaccine for weeks. It leaves their mother concerned. "If we have to wait, we have to wait," she said.
Officials with Dallas County Health and Human Services is also frustrated that the absence of vaccine that the federal government had promised by October leaves high-risk groups unprotected for weeks longer.
The upshot: More people will get sick, and some will die.
"Exposed and not protected," said health department director Zachary Thompson, "especially when we've seen how deadly this particular virus has been in Dallas County and Texas and throughout the nation."
Doctors and other providers who register to dispense the swine flu vaccine agree to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on who should get it - and when. That puts providers in the position of turning unqualified people away.
For accountability, the state requires providers to report back on all doses given.
