School-based swine flu vaccination clinics canceled as Washtenaw County seeks central site
All swine flu vaccination clinics scheduled to begin next week at Washtenaw County schools have been canceled after hundreds overwhelmed a county vaccine distribution Tuesday.
Officials decided to scrap plans to hold smaller clinics throughout the county in favor of larger, more central locations with more volunteers, said Susan Cerniglia, a county health department spokeswoman.
The locations, dates and times of those vaccination clinics will be announced on Thursday, she said. They will still be held next week, she said.
The first of the smaller clinics was set to begin Monday morning at Ypsilanti High School. Other clinics were to follow at other school districts next week.
Hundreds of people flocked to the Washtenaw Intermediate School District building and waited in line for hours — a majority with small children — for a chance to get the swine flu or H1N1 flu vaccine on Tuesday.
The clinic was set to start about 3 p.m., but began turning people away from the line as early as 4 p.m. As the lot filled, people began parking on the street, causing traffic congestion as rush hour began and raising concerns about those who were walking along the street to get to the clinic.
Concerns were also raised about having sufficient places for those who were waiting to sit or get access to bathrooms and water.
Last week, the county announced it had received about 30 percent of the vaccine it expected to receive by this point. It narrowed its definition of groups who would take highest priority in receiving the vaccine.Â
The vaccination clinic will still only be available to those highest priority groups in Washtenaw County. Those groups include:
• Pregnant women.
• Household caregivers of children younger than 6 months.
• Children ages 6 months though 4 years.
• Children between the ages of 5 and 18 who have medical conditions that put them at higher risk of having complications from the flu.
• Health care workers who provide direct patient care.
Tina Reed covers health and the environment for AnnArbor.com. You can reach her at tinareed@annarbor.com, call her at 734-623-2535 or find her on Twitter @TreedinAA.
Comments
Rork Kuick
Thu, Oct 29, 2009 : 11:19 a.m.
I presume Matt's comments are satire - not bad. I demand more sunny days in October! Let's rally! I wish the roadsidedinerlover comment was satire, but think it just sounds that way, as do Mercola's self-serving flu opinions. Go check what the chiropractors think while at it. They like money too. I think to hand out vaccines in a fair and inexpensive way, when demand exceeds supply, is hard. The expensive way is perhaps to have people apply to reserve a "shot". UM is doing some that way for the hospital folks. It takes making a list and prioritizing, and you can see that this would be a pain, and perhaps still be unfair (better informed or internet connected folks win). You could avoid the free-for-all though. There are parents of kids with certain medical conditions that are probably getting pretty frantic. The odd part to me is that this was (hopefully) not-so-hard to foresee, so the only problem is how to solve the distribution. I expect there are no checks of the qualifying criteria, because that too, is hard.
StartupGeek
Thu, Oct 29, 2009 : 10:27 a.m.
Very impressive! They realized the first go round was not an ideal solution and are attempting to fix the problem immediately.
roadsidedinerlover
Wed, Oct 28, 2009 : 10:58 p.m.
Go to mercola.com for the truth about flu shots! I am not getting one...it is too dangrerous..much more than the flu itself!