Re: Swine flu immunization underway
As some of the flubies here may recall, this has always been at the top of the list of the CDC - drive through vaccinations. Guess not, huh? This story is from California, BTW.Chaos leads to cancellation of 2nd flu clinic
By Melissa Evans and Kristin Agostoni
Posted: 10/27/2009 06:46:26 AM PDT
Officials have canceled the second of two planned swine flu vaccination clinics after a weekend drive-through session caused a traffic nightmare in Redondo Beach and Torrance.
Instead of hosting another clinic Nov. 14,
the Beach Cities Health District will direct people to Los Angeles County's Web site for other vaccination opportunities at walk-in clinics throughout the area, said Susan Burden, chief executive of the health agency, which coordinated the clinic on behalf of the county Department of Public Health.
"We don't want to put people in that situation again," Burden said. "Our venue is too small here.
It's a safety hazard."
The Redondo Beach Police Department requested aid from several surrounding agencies, including the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, to handle a throng of cars that arrived before dawn Saturday for the clinic at 514 N. Prospect Ave.
Angry motorists spilled into neighborhood streets as far away as Hawthorne Boulevard and waited for hours, and many of them left without shots to protect against swine flu, or H1N1 influenza virus.
Redondo Beach City Councilman Pat Aust, whose district includes the health agency, said he surveyed the scene at 8 a.m. and described it as "the craziest thing I've ever seen."
"This is a neighborhood," he said. "
It has to be someplace with a very large facility if it's going to be a regional thing."
Saturday's clinic was intended only for locals who don't have health insurance or access to shots, but the event drew people from as far as Santa Barbara and San Diego counties.
Burden was at a loss to explain why so many people showed up to the Redondo Beach clinic.
"I think it was just a perfect storm of events," she said. "Media attention and announcements at the federal level, combined with us having a very well-educated and health-minded community."
Redondo Beach city leaders criticized the county's coordination efforts, saying
there should have been better preparation for such a large turnout. A contract between the county and city of Redondo Beach was never finalized; City Manager Bill Workman said a draft that passed his desk last week "was insufficient in terms of who was doing what operation."
But
given public health concerns and the fact that the event had been widely publicized in newspaper articles and on the Internet, Redondo Beach agreed to provide some police services, Workman said.
"This was a county program, and they didn't provide the necessary resources," he said. "Our intention was to just make sure there was order at the site."
The Torrance Police Department assigned its full on-duty traffic command to the event and tried to keep residents informed with Facebook and Twitter updates, said Lt. Steve Danjou.
"Redondo P.D. let us know a day prior that they were having the flu clinic," he said. "We got involved once the traffic spilled into Torrance."
Redondo Beach will ask the county to help cover expenses in overtime pay for officers called in to help, among other costs, Workman said.
Aside from the traffic troubles, Burden said the clinic itself went smoothly.
Volunteers, including 50 licensed clinicians from surrounding health agencies and hospitals, helped distribute 2,700 flu shots.
The clinic was supposed to be open until 5:30 p.m., but
volunteers realized they were going to run out of the vaccine by about 2 p.m. and gave out wrist bands to those waiting in their cars.
The county distributed 23,000 shots at 13 clinics Saturday and Sunday. All of the clinics were crowded, said Jonathan Freedman, deputy director of the county's clinic program.
The county has so far received 280,000 shots, with 200,000 doled out to private health providers and 80,000 reserved for public health clinics.
"We need a lot more than that," Freedman said. "We've had some initial rough spots, but as supply and demand even out, I think things will go more smoothly."
Other county-run clinics will be held Nov. 14-15 at the Bogdanovich Recreation Center in San Pedro and Nov. 30 at El Camino College.
Health officials across the nation are grappling with a shortage of swine flu vaccine. Health officials expected to have 40 million doses of the injectable vaccine by the end of October but will only have enough for 28 million shots.
Officials at South Bay hospitals say they have seen a slight increase in the last week of people in the emergency room with flulike symptoms, but so far there hasn't been a surge.
"We were seeing three to four people a day in the emergency room with the flu. Now we're seeing 10 to 12," said Dr. Laurence Eason, medical director at Providence Little Company of Mary in Torrance.
View a list of future locations and hours online at
www.publichealth.lacounty.gov, or call the county's 2-1-1 information line.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_13647515