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Vanessa Akin, RN, gives a flu shot to Richard Toombs at yesterday's drive-through shot clinic. About 400 people got shots.
Traffic stands as the Rappahannock Area Health District gives 400 flu shots at a drive-through clinic yesterday. |
About 400 people received free flu shots at the Stafford County Government Center yesterday in a drive-through drill done in under two hours.
But the exercise was so popular that it complicated the morning rush hour at the county courthouse.
People lined up in the Government Center parking lot by 6 a.m. Nurses started giving the shots at 7 a.m., and organizers turned people away by 7:45.
At 9 a.m., when the last car had pulled away and the vaccine was gone, the volunteers broke into applause.
"It was awesome," said Sylvia Newport, immunization coordinator for the Rappahannock Area Health District and one of the organizers. "I think it went well."
The exercise was part of a two-day, statewide public-health drill. Called Fluex 06, the drill assumed that a pandemic flu, or a strain for which the public has little protection, was moving through the state.
Local hospitals were full and medical supplies were running low, according to the simulation. State officials declared a mock emergency and ordered the vaccination of as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.
In the Fredericksburg area, health officials participated in the exercise by scheduling a real-life, drive-through flu clinic. Those interested were told to roll down their car windows and roll up their sleeves for a free shot. The state Health Department supplied 400 doses of flu vaccine.
Officials chose the Stafford center for its large parking lot. The Stafford Volunteer Rescue Squad offered one of its bays, and the Stafford Sheriff's Office supplied four officers to help with traffic.
The response surprised just about everyone.
"This has been phenomenal," said Vera Lloyd, one of the public-health nurses giving the shots. "At first I thought we're going to be standing out here until noon and nobody's going to show up."
Barbara Rudich of North Stafford waited in line more than an hour for her shot.
"I never dreamed there would be this many people," she said. "I got here at 6:30."
Volunteers from the Rappahannock Medical Reserve Corps helped funnel cars from Courthouse Road through the parking lot to the rescue squad building. There, the front and rear bay doors were opened, and six people, armed with single-dose syringes, were waiting.
"Hi, good morning," Dr. Louis Massad said to Edmund Pariseau when Pariseau drove into the bay.
Massad, a retired Fredericksburg surgeon, is a volunteer with the reserve corps. Pariseau, a Stafford resident, had waited in line for about 70 minutes.
Pariseau had rolled down the window of his vehicle. He offered his left arm to Massad and his consent form to Jay Massad, who was working with her husband.
Massad cleaned a spot above Pariseau's biceps with an alcohol-soaked swab and stabbed him with the syringe. He wiped the spot again and Pariseau drove away.
Time elapsed: about 40 seconds.
At another station, nurse Marguerite Bartlett recognized one of the passengers when a car stopped beside her.
"How's life treating you, Miss Phyllis?"
When the next car pulled up, Bartlett said to Janet Fray, the passenger, "I need your arm."
Fray and her husband, Mike, had been in line for more than an hour.
Organizers chose a weekday morning for the clinic to simulate an actual emergency. The decision meant that the always-busy intersection at U.S. 1 and Courthouse Road would be even busier.
Six of the county courts were hearing cases yesterday, and there was the usual traffic for Brooke Point and Colonial Forge high schools.
"Traffic, of course, was our major issue," Newport said. "But for that time of the day, the issue was only probably about for 35 to 45 minutes. I don't think that was too bad."
Chris Staples, a deputy directing traffic for the Stafford Sheriff's Office, said another deputy began operating the traffic signal at the intersection to relieve the congestion.
"I think it went really well," Staples added. "It helped us realize what we need to focus on, especially if something ever did happen.
Staff reporter Cathy Dyson contributed to this story.
To reach JIM HALL:
Email: jhall@freelancestar.com
