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Numbers from the first three mass dispensing clinics for the Novel H1N1 influenza vaccine at area schools are down from what emergency officials were anticipating.

The Central Peninsula H1N1 Task Force has organized clinics at Redoubt Elementary, Mountain View Elementary and Nikiski North Star Elementary as of Tuesday, with more planned in this and coming weeks.

So far 387 students have been vaccinated through the mass dispensing clinics in the central Kenai Peninsula, according to a press release issued by the task force on Tuesday.

According to Regina Theisen, incident commander, participation rates for students at the three schools have ranged from a high of 35.3 percent at Redoubt to a low of 27.5 percent at Nikiski. Mountain View had a participation rate of 32.5 percent.

This is down from what the task force initially expected.

"When our task force started planning, our goal was to vaccinate 60 percent of the community and the kids," she said.

The goal was set based on historical seasonal flu vaccination rates and the expected demand for the vaccine.

She said there was a last minute jump in the number of permission slips students were required to have filled out.

At most schools though, it only meant an additional 20 to 30 shots.

Alongside that, some students who were listed to receive a vaccine were absent on the day of the clinic.

Theisen said it was possible a few parents had chosen to forgo the mass dispensing clinics as their children had already received a shot through the Kenai Public Health Center or a private practitioner in recent weeks.

Given the limited availability of the vaccine over the past few weeks however, she said that number would have been small.

Also keeping numbers low, she said some parents might assume if their child has already showed flu-like symptoms, then they've already had H1N1 and don't need to be vaccinated.

Theisen said that without testing there's no way to know for sure.

"This is a time of year when there's a lot of viruses circulating," she said. "It could be the seasonal flu or other types of viruses."

Fear about the vaccine continues to influence people's decisions as well she said.

She pointed to comments published in the results of last week's Clarion Question on Tuesday, asking whether readers would get the H1N1 vaccine.

The unscientific poll showed that 75 percent of the 585 who responded did not plan to get the vaccine, with some citing fear.

"There is distrust of the vaccine and that the government is handling this," she said. "There's the idea that the vaccine was rushed, but that's not the reality."

Dante Petri can be reached at dante.petri@peninsulaclarion.com.