The quest for H1N1 vaccine

Yesterday at Sabrina's check-up, I asked the doctor if she is recommending that toddlers get the H1N1 vaccine and she said yes, "if you can get your hands on some". Well, we did have a plan.

My research earlier in the week led me to a planned large vaccination clinic in the neighboring county which was to take place one day only, October 24th, from 9am - 5pm; 12,000 doses available but only for pregnant women and for children between 6 and 36 months of age. Now, knowing that there were severe vaccine shortages (that's why we couldn't stay in-county, they had run out), I proposed to Gene that we get there at 6 am to secure a spot in line. He agreed that it was worth it, and we decided to bring 2 fold-up chairs with us, plus enough provisions to last a while. So we got up at 4:30 am today, got Sabrina up around 4:45, gave her some milk and off we went. We got there at 6:30 am and I'm guessing we were close to the 1,100 - 1,300 group there. Here's the line ahead of us (many, many more around the corner)The first few had set up tents last night. The line was already half-way wrapped around the building, which itself has a huge footprint. Luckily it was not raining or too cold (just windy and in the 60's). Check out the awesome view we had, though... such glorious Fall foliage.

We set up "camp" there. It was still dark but we had some light thanks to the conference room just inside the building which was lit for what I can only guess were last minute logistics and planning sessions. Sabrina was in good spirits and as the sun started to come up, she wanted out of her stroller so we let her run around.

As she did, she greeted practically everyone in line with a cheerful "Hi" (her favorite word right now, although sometimes it comes out as just "I"). She's such a social butterfly, our little Sabrina. Gene joked that she was hitting the campaign trail! Given that the target groups for the vaccine were kids very close to her age and pregnant women, she ended up with many fans.

The line grew and grew. We weren't allowed to bring strollers indoors so I ended up taking it to the car and from there I could see people in a line that zig-zagged in the parking lot and went down a side street (this, after the people who were already queued up all the way around the building).

In all, everyone behaved themselves (whenever you have a crowd that large, tempers can easily get ignited, etc) and the planners did a great job of getting everyone through efficiently. I'm hoping we won't have to go through that again when it's time for Sabrina's second dose in about a month. Hopefully by then pediatrician's offices will have supplies. We got out of there at 10:30 am. It was worth it to have Sabrina protected against this scary disease, despite what she may have been thinking when that sharp needle pierced her tender left thigh!