Eight-year-old Bryan Lechuga was unimpressed when the nurse pushed the syringe up his nose to deliver one of South Florida's first doses of vaccine against H1N1 swine flu on Monday.

Did the dose, delivered as a mist, hurt?

``No.''

Did it tickle?

``No.''

Does he know what swine flu is?

``No.''

His mom knew, however, as did the moms of more than 50 students who showed up at Broadmoor Elementary in Miami-Dade County and at six public schools in Broward on Monday for the first day of vaccinations of the newly arrived H1N1 vaccine.

``It's important because this could be a very serious disease,'' said Iris Luna, who brought her 5-year-old daughter Ashley to Broadmoor to be vaccinated.

Bryan, Ashley and the 50 or so who showed up at Broadmoor on Monday, which was a teacher's workday in Miami-Dade, were fortunate to get their doses. Demand for the H1N1 vaccine, also available in an injectable form, far outstrips the supply.

School-age children will get most of the first shipment of vaccines in South Florida, and remaining doses will go to private physicians and federal and county health clinics for those who are most at risk: pregnant women; caretakers of infants under 5 months of age; young people 2 to 24; people 25 to 64 who have chronic conditions such as asthma or diabetes; and healthcare workers, emergency personnel and other first responders.

Miami-Dade now has 28,500 doses of vaccine. Broward now has 35,100 doses. More is on order but officials can't say when they will arrive. Nationwide, swine flu vaccine distribution has been slowed; federal health officials say manufacturing and testing delays mean only about 30 million doses will be available by the end of October, down from a promised 40 million doses.

``We're asking for patience,'' said Lillian Rivera, administrator of the Miami-Dade Health Department. ``Vaccine availability will get better.''

PLANS VARY

Vaccination plans vary in each county.

In Miami-Dade, students at schools served by ``health teams'' -- which is 160 of the county's 419 public schools -- can get vaccinated at school clinics, as long as they have their parents' consent. Students at the remaining schools without health teams will have to get vaccinated by private physicians or at county clinics. The list of schools with health teams, which account for about 55 percent of the school system's 345,000 students, is posted at www.thechildrenstrust.org. The health teams are operated and funded by the Children's Trust, Miami Children's Hospital, the Jessie Trice Community Health Center and other groups.

In Broward, vaccines will be administered at six schools this week -- Coconut Creek High, Dania Elementary, Pembroke Pines Elementary, Tamarac Elementary, Westpine Middle and Wilton Manors Elementary -- with plans to spread to every school in the district over the next four or five weeks. Parents' consent is also required.

In both counties, vaccinations probably will be limited to children and other high-priority patients until late November, health officials said. Children younger than 10 require two doses, spaced a few weeks apart.

WAITING THEIR TURN

At Westpine Middle in Sunrise, between 15 and 20 kids sat in chairs Monday morning waiting for their turn to get a squirt or injection from a Broward County Health Department nurse.

About 550 kids had turned in consent forms, roughly a third of the school's student population, Assistant Principal Jennifer Adams said.

She said many parents contacted the school with questions about the vaccine. School officials urged them to direct those questions to their own doctors.

Sixth-grader Tyler Roche, 11, sat down in front of registered nurse Barrie Angelo for a few questions before he got the vaccine.

``How are you today?'' Angelo asked. ``How are you feeling? You're not sick or anything?''

She held his right nostril closed and sprayed inside his left, then switched sides.

``That wasn't too hard,'' she told Tyler.

``No,'' he agreed. ``That tickles.''

His mother, Mary Roche, who works in the school's cafeteria, said she was concerned about her son getting the vaccine but decided to have him get it on her pediatrician's recommendation.

``I'm so afraid of the newness of it all and being a live vaccine going into him,'' she said.

Those fears are common but baseless, Rivera said. ``The vaccine is safe,'' she said.

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