KU clinic has doses left over
Robert and Sarah Casad thought Sunday afternoon would be their last and best chance to get a flu shot this year.
That’s why they made sure they were near the front of the line at a flu shot clinic for people in high-risk categories. The Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department and Kansas University’s Student Health Services conducted the clinic at Allen Fieldhouse.
The Casads were out of town in October when the health department offered its Flu-X emergency vaccination distribution exercise at Free State High School.
“We just kept our eyes open for another opportunity,” Sarah Casad said. “I just figured if I got the flu I’d get over it.”
The vaccinations began at noon and by the time the clinic ended at 4 p.m. a total of 604 people, including 16 children, had received flu shots, health department officials said.
The health department began the clinic with 1,500 doses of available vaccine, said Janelle Martin, department spokeswoman. The remaining 900 or so doses will be given at the health department, 200 Maine, to those in at-risk groups, she said.
The Casads, of Lawrence, were second and third in line when vaccinations began. They arrived at the fieldhouse shortly after 9 a.m. Unlike the early arrivals at the October exercise, the Casads and hundreds of others didn’t have to wait several hours outside in the cold.
County and KU health workers and volunteers began setting up their processing tables and vaccination stations at 8 a.m. The fieldhouse doors originally weren’t going to be opened to the public until 11 a.m. but workers opened the doors much earlier.
Just ahead of the Casads was Kathy, a 49-year-old Lawrence woman who didn’t want to give her last name because of health problems. She put away a paperback book she had been reading and became the first to enter the assembly-line style vaccination process.
| ¢ The Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department will continue distributing flu vaccine today at its clinic, 200 Maine. The clinic will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.¢ About 900 doses are available for people considered to be in the high-risk categories for getting the flu and suffering complications. Those considered at risk are generally the elderly, children 6 to 23 months old, and people suffering from serious chronic medical conditions such as asthma and heart disease.¢ Charges for the flu shots are $12 for children under 3 and $17 for everyone else. The health department doesn’t deny service to anyone based on an inability to pay.¢ So far there has not been a confirmed case of the flu in Douglas County. |
Smooth operation
That process started at the south end of the fieldhouse, where papers were filled out, and continued down the hallway to the east lobby entrance where the shots were administered. Flu shot recipients had been urged to park in the multilevel parking garage at the north end of the fieldhouse and enter through the north entrance. After getting vaccinated they then left through the same doorway.
“It went pretty smoothly, but I got a little confused after parking my car,” said Victor Carr, 82, Lawrence, after getting his shot. “You can’t see the building like you used to.”
Michelle Ross was relieved to be able to get her 10-month-old daughter, Natalya, vaccinated.
“And she didn’t even cry,” Ross said, looking down at her wide-eyed infant sitting in a stroller.
Ross, of Lawrence, said she had started to take her daughter to the October clinic at FSHS but decided she didn’t want Natalya to wait outside in the cold while the long line streamed into the high school.
Flu shot supply, demand reversed
6News video: Additional flu shots on their way to Lawrence (11-30-04)
