Vaccination clinics crowded but efficient

<p>It wasn't fairy tale scenery, rip-roaring rides or the delighted laughter of children that had folks referencing Disneyland at two Sonoma County high school campuses Saturday.</p><p>It was the lines — great, long, snaking ones that doubled-back a time or two and bent around multiple sides of large school buildings as thousands of people waited for three and four hours for a chance to obtain H1N1 flu vaccines.</p><p>“It's like waiting in a line at Disneyland, only there's a needle at the end,” said Santa Rosa John Fullmer, one of several to invoke the Happiest Place on Earth as they contemplated another hour or two in line Saturday.</p><p>Despite the long waits and warnings that a finite number of doses were available, the daylong clinics run by Sonoma County Public Health went smoothly, with 4,458 doses given and vaccine left over.</p><p>Staffers briefly closed the gates an hour early at Lawrence Cook Middle School in Santa Rosa's Roseland district when they couldn't guarantee they could serve new arrivals, Deputy Public Health Director Mark Netherda said.</p><p>Some people left. But all who stayed received a flu shot.</p><p>The 4,458 doses were dispensed during the course of the concurrent six-hour clinics, split nearly equally between the sites in Windsor and Santa Rosa, he said.</p><p>The county still has about 1,500 doses to distribute at a clinic planned Saturday at Petaluma's Case Grande High School. But Netherda said his department would evaluate whether the open clinic model as a means of dispensing the vaccine had been exhausted.</p><p>A nationwide shortage of the vaccine formulated to prevent H1N1, or “swine” flu,” means medical providers around the county are distributing doses whenever they get them, focusing on populations most at risk from the disease, including children, pregnant women, health care and emergency medical personnel, and middle-aged adults with underlying medical problems. </p><p>Public health providers launched Saturday's dual clinics with a supply of about 6,000 vaccines total - including about 500 preservative-free doses for pregnant women and 2,000 nasal mist sprays for the youngest children.</p><p>Though under pressure to reserve the available supply to people in the priority groups, Netherda said volunteers and staffers working the clinics were relying primarily on self-screening to ensure those most in need got the vaccine.</p><p>When folks were reminded they were not in a priority group and were asked if they could wait to get one later, most complied, he said.</p><p>“People are being very gracious and very understanding,” Netherda said.</p><p>Katie Harrell, a Sonoma State University nursing student, was among nearly two dozen health workers who administered the shots. She had no complaints at the end of the day, despite the hours on her feet.</p><p>“I'm fine,” she said. “I like it because you are talking to so many people. It helps keep you awake.”</p><p>One woman with several hours still to wait at Windsor High School on Saturday afternoon complained of the vaccine shortage given the alarming pronouncements public officials made about the virus as far back as last spring.</p><p>“Please don't tell me it's a world pandemic but you don't have enough medicine,” said Rohnert Park resident Barbara Kammeyer, 69, who said she had a compromised respiratory system and hoped to obtain a shot even though her age puts her four years outside a priority group identified for people aged 25 to 64 with underlying health conditions.</p><p>“No one's complaining,” said Karen Garrett, of Sonoma, who got in line at Windsor High by 8:30 a.m., an hour before the clinic opened. “It is what it is. We planned on making a day of it.”</p><p>Brian Farrell of Santa Rosa, 30, arrived around 7 a.m. and figures he was among the first 35 or so to arrive, most of them holding spaces for other family members.</p><p>“Obviously I dreaded it last night,” he said. But the wait went smoothly and he and his wife Jaime, and their 2-year old son Mason Farrell, all acquired H1N1 shots and were on their way home by 10:30 a.m.</p><p>People started lining up by about 6:30 a.m., setting themselves up for an automatic three-hour wait, which turned out to be the average wait time through the morning.</p><p>At Cook Middle School, the morning started with a line that zig-zagged around the inner courtyard and exterior sidewalk, out past the parking lot and onto Sebastopol Road, where the line was on the shoulder for a short distance.</p><p>Some still in line on Saturday afternoon said they'd already waited 3 1/2 hours. But they praised the clinic as orderly and organized.</p><p>“It's going to be worth it in the long run,” said 20-year-old Roberto Romero of Santa Rosa, who brought his mother, younger sister and brother, and two small family day-care clients. </p><p>Many in line said they were prepared for waits of up to six hours, and most said they were pleased with the frequent notices from clinic volunteers that it appeared there would be sufficient vaccines for those in line.</p><p>“We imagined we were going to be waiting this long,” said Jesus Macias of Petaluma, though that didn't keep his 7-year-old grandson Tori Romo from asking after more than two hours in line, “Do you think they'd let me cut in front all the way to inside?”</p>