If there has been one word that has been stressed while everyone waits and wonders when an H1N1 vaccine is going to arrive, it has been this:
Caution.

This won’t make it any easier.

Officials in Mount Holly, N.J., confirm that a 17-year-old high school student who died over the weekend had swine flu.

The Burlington County Medical Examiner is saying that influenza is the cause of death.

The sophomore at Rancocas Valley High School became New Jersey’s 19th person to die of swine flu.

Here in Pennsylvania, the death toll from H1N1 stands at 17. That number includes eight victims in Philadelphia and one in Montco. Delaware County has not recorded any swine flu deaths as yet.

And County Council sounds like they’re getting as antsy as the rest of us as they await word from the state on when a vaccine might arrive.

Councilman Jack Whelan said the county has requested 95,000 doses for students in grades kindergarten through 12th grade.

They’re planning a meeting with the county’s school superintendents for Thursday morning.

While the CDC says it has bumped up its allocation for H1N1 vaccine for Pennsylvania to 788,000 doses, up from 566,000 reported last week, no one at the state level is offering any details on how the vaccine is being distributed or to who.

In the meantime, expect nerves to get more and more frayed with each new story like the one breaking in New Jersey.