Health and Human Services offers double the vaccines
For the third year in a row, the San Benito County Health and
Human Services Agency is offering free flu vaccinations to
community members
– and this year they want to double the number of people
inoculated.
Health and Human Services offers double the vaccines
For the third year in a row, the San Benito County Health and Human Services Agency is offering free flu vaccinations to community members – and this year they want to double the number of people inoculated.
“Last year we provided 743 vaccines,” said Patricia Morales, a program coordinator for San Benito County’s Health and Human Services Public Health Division, “And this year we are looking to push that to 1,500.”
This year, staff will be offering both the FluMist vaccine that was offered last year and an injectable flu vaccination. The vaccination is free and is available for anyone ages 6 months and up. The FluMist is recommended for healthy people between the ages of 2 and 49 months, who are not pregnant. The shot is approved for those 6 months and older, including pregnant women and those with chronic medical conditions.
“There were more FluMist and flu shots available this year so we decided to open it up to the entire community,” Morales said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the flu vaccination for anyone over six months, but there has a been a push this year to vaccinate school-age children.
“Schools tend to be a really great breeding ground for transmission [of disease], and that includes the flu virus,” Morales said.
The flu vaccine is also recommended for people with chronic medical conditions, or those who live in households with people with chronic medical conditions. Health care workers are encouraged to get the vaccination, as well.
Once again the flu clinic will be used as an emergency response drill for county staff, and as many as 90 staff members and volunteers will participate in the flu clinic on Thursday, Nov. 6. During the drill, staff members use the National Incident Management System, a system developed to streamline the way different agencies respond to emergencies. During an incident or drill, staff members can be assigned any job from public information officer, which Morales drew, to incident commander.
“We’ve been working really hard since our first year to improve the process,” Morales said.
At each clinic, staff closely time how long it takes someone to get through the clinic – clocking the time from when they register to when they exit the building. The put-through time, as they call it, at last year’s clinic averaged eight and a half minutes per person.
“The goal is always to be fast, efficient and accurate,” Morales said.
Since the first clinic in 2006, the staff has taken into consideration how to service people with special needs and the need to collaborate with a variety of different agencies. In addition to Health and Human Services staff, fire department staff and law enforcement are involved in the drill.
“We feel the flu clinic is an important part of our emergency preparedness,” Morales said. “We can’t always plan for a disaster, but you can help in practicing the steps for when an actual disaster or public health emergency happens.”
The free flu clinic sponsored by the San Benito County Health and Human Services Agency Public Health Services will be Thursday, Nov. 6 from 1:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Veteran’s Memorial Building, 649 San Benito St., in Hollister. Both FluMist, a nasal spray vaccination, and flu shots will be available for citizens ages 6 months and up. For more information, call 637-5367.
