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H1N1 clinic draws more than 1,000

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By Eric Robinette 1:01 AM Sunday, November 1, 2009

MIDDLETOWN — About 1,300 people received the H1N1 vaccine at flu clinic held Saturday, Oct. 31 by the Middletown Health Department at Miami University Middletown — and there were dosages left over by the end.

The clinic drew people from as far away as Cincinnati, and a number of attendees commented on how well organized they thought the event was. Other H1N1 clinics in the area have had to turn people away and/or close down.

“We tried to go to one at the (Butler County) fairgrounds last Friday — we read about this last night and thought we’d give it a shot. We didn’t even get in at the fairgrounds” said Christopher Growcock of Madison Twp.

Janice Kaup, who came from Cincinnati, said, “This was great. It’s very impressive. We didn’t have to wait in a long line.”

Jackie Phillips, the director of nursing the for the Middletown Health Department, said the clinic went smoothly partly because it followed other clinics, and partly because it targeted high-risk groups, such as children and pregnant women.

Attendees made their way through registration lines and then went into a room at the Campus Community Center to receive their dosages. TVs played movies to make kids feel more at ease. One played Pixar’s “Monsters, Inc.,” and another played the Jim Carrey version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

One of the few complaints Karl Konsdorf of Franklin had about the event was that sometimes the cries of children could be heard outside the room, which would set other kids on edge.

On the whole, though, he said the clinic “went a lot faster than I thought ... they’ve got it all streamlined and it seems pretty well organized.”

Many of the kids took their shots with little fuss, although a number of them cried, probably not planning to be scared in exactly this way on Halloween.

“She did not cry one bit,” said Kaup, referring to her 3-year-old daughter Cecilia, who got through her shot with not more than a worried look on her face. Phillips said she would meet this week with other health department officials to schedule another clinic, depending on how much of the vaccine is available. She said there were about 500 shots left after Saturday’s clinic. 

»Get more info online at MiddletownJournal  .com/go/health

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