Health professionals urge most people to get seasonal flu vaccines early.

Although the partial government shutdown has interrupted posting of flu tracking data, it has had no impact on vaccine availability.

CDC spokeswoman Dr. Barbara Reynolds says that "135 million doses are being produced, more than 73 million have shipped."

The Vaccines For Children program, which provides shots for low-income children, also is running smoothly despite the shutdown.

In Pennsylvania, the flow of vaccines is also uninterrupted.

"Vaccine is generally shipped to providers directly from the manufacturers, so we wouldn't anticipate an interruption in availability," says Department of Health spokeswoman Holli Senior. "Additionally, the department provides vaccine to (its) state health centers, Vaccines for Children providers in the state and some other private providers like Federally Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics. The vaccine we provide is shipped to them from a national distributor, and we do not anticipate an impact as a result of the federal government shutdown.