Threat Nullified

Yesterday we caught word that the Coast Guard Base received 50 swine flu vaccinations from the State of Alaska. These vaccines were sent for the purpose to be used on Coast Guard Dependents ONLY (USCG spouse's & children.)

The email announcement came through at 4pm yesterday. The "shot clinic" was to be held the following day from 1pm to 3pm....and, remember, only 50 vaccines.

I planned my whole day around this shot clinic. My plan was to leave work at 12:15 and get to the Base by 12:30 so that I could wait in line. All morning long I watched the clock; as soon as noon hit I was packing things up and ready to walk out the door.

I got to the Base a little after 12:30...there were already 2 women waiting, and their combined 4 children. (that's 6 shots already...I was adding in my head.) The Base Clinic closes for lunch, so they were all waiting in the breezeway. Chris went to get Emily out of school so that she too could get the shot and then they joined me. Over the next ten minutes (still a quarter to 1pm) there were about 8 women and their combined 15 children all squeezed into that breezeway waiting for the Clinic to open. (25 shots...including Me & Em)

The hysteria here is crazy. There was an article in the newspaper yesterday talking about how the school district is considering closing all of the schools for a month so that this "bug" stops spreading! So, to hear that someone, anyone had vaccines...YOU BET THERE WOULD BE A LINE!

Once they opened we wrote our names on a list in order of who got there first. However, that didn't do much good because they decided to distribute the vaccine based on "urgency/priority" -- pregnant women first, next care givers, then small children, then older children, and then everyone else.

So, props for being pregnant...I was actually the very first person to get the shot this afternoon. The folks holding the Shot Clinic were so disorganized with this whole mess that we were able to get Emily in there with me, and she got the shot as well. She actually got 2 shots...one in each leg. The seasonal flu and the swine flu. The kicker is...those two shots were just "primer" shots because she hasn't had a flu shot before, so we need to go back in a month and do it all over again for her. (Hopefully they'll have more by then.)

Thank God this all worked out! My boss was there as well to get the shot, but she is considered a "care giver" and therefore she is a "second priority" - she said she was waiting there for 2 hours! When we had left the building and went back through the lobby there were at least 50-70 people in there all waiting - and this was at 1:30pm by the time we were done. They DEFINITELY had to turn people away!

In the end...the threat has been nullified.