Hundreds line up for flu shots
It was a state of rushed excitement Thursday afternoon at the Fayette County Health Center in Uniontown as the elderly and ill lined up in the lobby for their injection of the influenza vaccine, which many have waited for months to receive. Throughout the course of the day, 500 high-risk people waited in line to receive their vaccination.
All of those who went through the line Thursday were on a list of high-risk individuals from around the county that was compiled by the health center. The health center phoned each person prior to his or her arrival and scheduled an appointment with each.
People were in and out of the center. The parking lot was packed and buses dropped high-risk patients off in front so they could fill out a form and get in line for the long-anticipated shot.
Uniontown residents Juliette Sansone and Lucille Meegan came together to get their shots. Both women are considered very high risk, with one having heart trouble and the other diabetes.
“Our doctors don’t have (the shots),” Meegan said.
She added that the vaccination helps to prevent illness from settling in.
“I got it last year and I didn’t get a cold or anything,” she said.
Sansone said during her travels to Cleveland and Baltimore, she checked to see if any flu shots were available and none were.
The two women got on the health department’s waiting list, and two weeks later, they received the call for a scheduled vaccination.
Both waiting in a swift-moving line, Audrice Gary, 73, and her husband Allen, 79, both of Indian Head, were relieved they traveled to the health center to get their shot. Audrice has diabetes and Allen has an artificial heart valve.
“We’re glad we’re getting it,” Audrice Gary said.
With her daughter by her side for moral support, Anne Vinoverski of West Leisenring said it is very important that she get the shot.
“I do a lot of outside work,” Vinoverski said. “And the flu shot can protect me.”
By the time it’s all said and done, about 2,000 elderly and ill will leave the health center with their long-sought-after vaccinations.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) allotted 343,000 doses of the vaccine to Pennsylvania. After receiving the shipment, the state Department of Health (DOH) created a plan for distribution based on an assessment of the need of the vaccine in hospitals, nursing homes and county health departments.
A number of flu vaccines are being distributed among nursing homes, hospitals and health centers in these counties: Fayette County, 580 doses; Greene County, 50 doses; and Washington County, 3,670 doses.
DOH Spokesperson Jessica Seiders said the plan will meet approximately 80 percent of every request across the state.
As the second or third state with greatest number of elderly adults in the nation, Pennsylvania has 3 million high-risk people. Seiders said after the most recent shipment of doses are gone, about 1 million people in the state will be left to vaccinate.
So far, a few cases of the flu were reported across the state and many were reported across the nation, Seiders said. The first flu case in Pennsylvania was documented in Philadelphia last Friday.
Seiders said the current vaccination covers a strain of the virus seen in those documented cases. The flu season will reach its peak in January or February, Seiders said.