Another event for H1N1 doses tentatively planned for Nov. 17
Hollister’s Pat Johns stood in line Tuesday at the Veterans
Memorial Building waiting for a seasonal flu vaccine. She was
joined by hundreds of others who had formed a line before the event
started stretching a block down to Sixth Street and around the
corner.
”
It isn’t anything I normally do,
”
Johns said shortly after the 1:30 p.m. clinic began.
”
I’m getting ready to take a couple of trips [to Mexico] this
year and needed to at least start the process.
”
Another event for H1N1 doses tentatively planned for Nov. 17
Hollister’s Pat Johns stood in line Tuesday at the Veterans Memorial Building waiting for a seasonal flu vaccine. She was joined by hundreds of others who had formed a line before the event started stretching a block down to Sixth Street and around the corner.
“It isn’t anything I normally do,” Johns said shortly after the 1:30 p.m. clinic began. “I’m getting ready to take a couple of trips [to Mexico] this year and needed to at least start the process.”
Illness prevention appears to be top of mind for many people these days. Public health officials, though, weren’t concerned about having enough doses to vaccinate all the residents because the state sent 3,400 of them – about 1,300 more than the 2008 clinic when the county ran out of vaccines, said Samela Perez, a public information officer for the county public health department.
Perez attributed the larger-than-usual crowd, which health officials had anticipated, to all the hype surrounding the H1N1 flu and a media campaign to ensure locals were aware of the free seasonal flu clinic. For residents who may have expected an H1N1 vaccine – health officials initially said it would be available to eligible children – it was unattainable because the county ran out of the 600 doses it received about a month ago, Perez said.
Still, all the talk of the H1N1 flu has helped to get citizens aware of such preventative measures, she said. That’s a good thing because health experts recommend getting both vaccines because neither protects against the counterpart virus’ ailments.
“They’re being more proactive,” Perez said. “People want to get the seasonal flu as well as the H1N1 vaccine.”
They may have a chance to get the H1N1 vaccine at a tentatively set, follow-up clinic Nov. 17. The event hinges on whether the county receives a “substantial” number of doses before then, Perez said. If it does not, public health staff likely will distribute the vaccines from its office and by channeling them through the “medical care community,” she said.
Perez called it a “great opportunity for public health to do something” positive.
“We’re testing emergency preparedness systems,” she said, “as well as doing something good for the community,” she said.
Especially during difficult economic times, she noted, it is difficult for a family of five to afford vaccines for everyone.
“When times are hard, people don’t have $20 or $30 where they do something preventative,” she said, noting how the total cost could reach $150.
She also contended the wait time at the free flu clinic can be shorter than getting the vaccine elsewhere. The average time from entering the Veterans Memorial Building to getting a vaccine was at 8 minutes and 31 seconds last year, she said.
With all those factors, it was the largest attendance emergency preparedness employee Jim Clark has seen in the four times he has worked the event.
“I’ve never seen [the line] all the way down to the corner like that before,” he said.
