President Obama Daughters Get Swine Flu Shots

The Obama daughters have gotten their swine flu shots.

The White House has been weighing how to address public interest in whether the first family has been vaccinated against swine flu.

President Obama and his wife, Michelle, will “wait until the needs of the priority groups” - including young people under 24, pregnant women and people with causal illnesses - have been met. But daughters Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8, fall within the priority groups, and they received their injections last week from the White House doctor, who apply for the vaccine through the District of Columbia Department of Health “using the same process as every other vaccination site in the District.”

The vaccinations could raise questions about whether the Obama girls were given special treatment, as the administration grapples with concern that the vaccine is not more readily available. (Officials say the holdup is with manufacturers, whose production procedure has been slower than anticipated.) While there are lines at vaccination clinics in the capital, a spokesperson for the Health Department said no one who fell into a priority group had been turned away.