Steve Jennings told a lie to get a swine flu shot.

Jennings, 53, has a neuromuscular disease that puts him at risk to catch the H1N1 virus and develop severe complications. But Jennings doesn't qualify for the flu shot clinics being held today in St. Louis County.

So the Kirkwood resident used his mother's Crystal City address to get a shot in Jefferson County last week.

A shortage of H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine has forced people like Jennings to get creative to protect themselves.

St. Louis County's mass H1N1 vaccination clinics at five high schools today are aimed at distributing 10,000 doses to high-priority groups: pregnant women, children 6 months to 4 years old, children 5 to 18 with a qualifying health condition, health care workers and caregivers of infants.

While people may be asked to show proof of residency, health workers won't perform sonograms in the parking lots or administer lung capacity tests to make sure everyone falls into one of the priority groups.

Instead, they ask that people follow the honor system and wait until vaccine is available to anyone.

"In the interest of public health, we're requesting that people respect the

priority groups, and if they're not in a priority group, to wait so that they don't take that dose away from someone who needs it more," said Craig LeFebvre, spokesman for the St. Louis County Department of Health.

Distributing the H1N1 vaccine is a massive undertaking not unlike the national polio vaccine campaign of the 1950s.

Federal health officials originally predicted that 160 million doses of H1N1 vaccine would be available by the end of October. So far, just 28.2 million doses have been doled out to states, including 1.4 million to Illinois and 441,500 to Missouri.

Meanwhile, swine flu illness is widespread and primarily striking younger people. More than half of those hospitalized with flu have been younger than 25. Nearly all of the deaths have been in people 65 and younger, including 114 children. That's the opposite of what is seen with the typical seasonal flu, and the logic behind the priority groupings.

But many have questioned the distribution system that can seem to favor people living in certain areas over those who are most vulnerable.

"I love Jefferson County, but why should they get swine flu vaccine well before St. Louis County?" Jennings asked. "If things turn out to be an epidemic that kills thousands of people, I hate to point the finger at anybody, but it seems like the planning could have been a little more coordinated."

Because of the limited quantity of vaccine, the priority groups being used for St. Louis County's clinics are even tighter than the guidelines issued by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC also adds anyone 6 months to 24 years old and all adults 25-64 with chronic health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease or neuromuscular disorders, which would include Jennings.

"These are the people who are most vulnerable to 2009 H1N1 influenza, and it's our job to do everything we can to keep them safe this flu season," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, CDC director, in a letter sent Thursday to state health officials. "While vaccine supplies are still limited, any vaccine distribution decisions that appear to direct vaccine to people outside the identified priority groups have the potential to undermine the credibility of the program."

A recent national poll found that only about a third of adults who have tried to get a swine flu vaccine have been successful. The numbers are about the same for parents who have tried to get the vaccine for their children.

The problem lies with the unpredictable vaccine development process that relies on the flu virus to multiply in chicken eggs, said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC in a media conference call on Friday.

"The vaccine strain has been slow-growing and the manufacturers have had a challenge in getting a yield that ... met their predictions," she said.

Schuchat said there's no evidence that doctors or health departments are offering vaccines to people outside of the target populations. She also praised the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District for a public-private partnership that has funneled vaccine to children with special needs via drive-through clinics.

That gives hope to people like Leah Haub, an attorney in St. Charles, who has spent hours on the phone with pediatricians, school districts and health departments trying to secure vaccines for her 13-year-old son with diabetes and 18-year-old daughter with kidney disease.

"They could die if they get this disease," Haub said. "You would think that the doctors would have (vaccine) for their patients."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.