Crowds, traffic clog Windsor swine flu clinic

Sonoma County's first public drive-up swine flu clinic in Windsor was swamped with people waiting in long lines of cars to get their vaccination against the H1N1 virus.

Lines of cars were already waiting when public health officials got to the staging area at Windsor High School at 7 a.m. for the clinic, which opened at 9:30 a.m. By the time the first shots were given at the drive-through stopping point, a report over law enforcement radio referred to the traffic as the Windsor “fiasco.” Hundreds of cars were lined up on Windsor Road with a waiting time in excess of two hours.

Finally, just before 11 a.m., health officials announced that they were going to exhaust their supply of 6,000 vaccinations, given both as shots and as nasal spray. Officials were preparing to post signs toward the end of the line asking people to go the alternate walk-through clinic at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma. The signs said, “Sorry. Long wait. Alternate site, 333 Casa Grande Road, Petaluma.”

As of noon, the Windsor clinic -- which was intended to stay open until 3:30 p.m. -- was closed. And the Petaluma clinic closed shortly thereafter.

Mary Maddux-Gonzalez, the county's public health director, offered assurances that the county would be getting more vaccines in the future, and that residents would be able to get immunized at their doctor's office or clinic.

The two public clinics on Saturday were intended to offer the first swine flu vaccinations to those most vulnerable – pregnant women, health care workers and emergency medical personnel, people living in a household with a child under 6 months of age, those 6 months to 24 years of age, and those 25 to 65 with an existing medical condition.