Vaccine threat rumor 'baseless'

A woman receives a free swine flu vaccination at a clinic in Beijing yesterday.

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BEIJING health authorities said yesterday that swine flu shots would continue, dismissing rumors circulating over the mobile phone network that the program would be shut down.

"The inoculations will not be suspended," said Zhang Jianshu, director of the publicity department of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau. "Beijing has reported no serious adverse reactions."

Zhang said some Beijing residents had received text messages saying that the city government would halt the ongoing inoculation while the H1N1 vaccine was reassessed. The messages did not give reasons why such a move would occur.

"No such decision has been made by the government," Zhang said. "It's totally baseless."

He said the Beijing Public Security Bureau was tracing the rumor.

Deng Ying, a director of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that more than 1.5 million Beijing residents had been inoculated as of Wednesday.

Swine flu cases accounted for nearly 90 percent of all flu cases reported on the Chinese mainland last week.

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