H1N1 vaccine clinic draws a crowd

When Monday’s free H1N1 flu vaccination clinic began at 2:30 p.m., there was a line of people that stretched out the doors of the Corn Palace and around part of City Hall.

In the first half-hour of the mass vaccination effort, Corn Palace Director Mark Schilling estimated that 250 people were vaccinated.

The clinic was scheduled to end at 7 p.m., but Schilling said the vaccine doses ran out around 6 p.m., after 1,175 were given. At that time, Schilling said, the lobby was full and there were around 100 people waiting outside. Others stopped by or were called and told the supply had been depleted.

Schilling said the number of doses available was between 1,150 and 1,200, depending on the number of half-doses for children under 3 years old. Another clinic may be scheduled if more doses become available, he said.

This was the second year of mass flu vaccinations at the Corn Palace, and Schilling said the same techniques were utilized. Because of the onset of H1N1, things were a bit more complex this year.

“The vaccinators are really having to look at who qualifies for what and make sure we get the right people to the right tables,” Schilling said.

Vaccinations were offered only to people in the first two vaccination target groups: pregnant women, individuals between the ages of six months and 24 years of age, adults 25 to 64 years of age with chronic health conditions (asthma, diabetes, neuromuscular diseases, renal disease or cardiovascular disease), caregivers of children less than six months of age, and health-care and emergency medical services workers. With close to 100 volunteers directing traffic, helping fill out forms, doing medical screenings and then doing the vaccinations, the lines moved fast.

Some people were in and out in a half-hour or less.

“It takes many different volunteers to make something like this work,” Schilling said.

Standing in line outside the Corn Palace, Janel and Steve Laufman waited with their three children.

“I think it’s a good deal — I think we are going to be seeing more and more of this,” Janel Laufman said. “The clinics say they only get 10 doses at a time, and they are gone before they even let anybody know that they are there, so we just didn’t have any other options.”

Mitchell High School senior Taylor Piper said that between school and extracurricular activities, Monday’s flu clinic was a rare chance to fit a vaccination into her schedule.

“I think it’s nice for people who can’t go to the clinics and afford to pay for stuff, and it’s nice to have another option for somewhere to go to get your flu shot,” Piper said.

Tags: health care, news, local, h1n1, flu