Via the Salt Lake Tribune: Flu clinics reveal challenges of mass vaccinations. Excerpt:
People lined up by the thousands early Saturday outside Salt Lake County public health clinics, heeding officials' calls to get themselves and their children vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus.
Yet hundreds were turned away soon after the clinics opened their doors, leaving many discouraged and frustrated.
Dosages, 7,000 in all, had been spoken for by 7:30 a.m. Saturday at the county's four mass-vaccination sites, Salt Lake Valley Health Department spokeswoman Kate Lilja said.
"It's sad there's a limited number of doses. I hope the people who need it can get it," Emily Green, who drove in from Orem, said as she stood in line at the Southeast Public Health Center in Sandy.
As a pregnant woman, Green is in one of five groups targeted for priority vaccination against the flu that already has claimed eight Utahns and hospitalized another 274 this season.
Still, Lilja said county health officials viewed Saturday's clinics as a success. "We will be reviewing everything we did today to refine our process," she said.
Lilja added more clinics will be held in future but it's unlikely another mass vaccination will occur next Saturday.
The specter of around-the-block lines could be a seen as a public-health success story or a sign of a coming logistical train wreck as federal, state and local health authorities struggle to mass vaccinate children and adults in five special target groups.
"It's really gratifying to see a high level of interest," said David Sundwall, state Department of Health executive director.
"We don't have any precedent for this. When we have enough for everyone, by late November and early December, it will be routinely available at vaccine clinics."
