Beach officials to administer H1N1 flu shots
The Fort Myers Beach Fire Department and the Community Emergency Response Team will again attempt to administer H1N1 flu vaccinations at Chapel by the Sea Presbyterian Church at 100 Chapel St. on Jan. 11-12, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Beach fire officials were preparing to set up a H1N1 vaccination clinic under a temporary veranda at Chapel by the Sea in mid-November. But, the long-awaited arrival of H1N1 flu shots to the Beach experienced a detour when 1,000 doses of the vaccine supply was delivered to the Beach on Nov. 4, only to be taken back hours later by the Lee County Health Department.
This time around, everyone at least 3 years old is eligible to receive the H1N1 flu vaccination shots. The FMB Fire Department’s emergency medical technicians and parademics will be volunteering their time to assist in screening and giving injections.
CERT leader Al Agathen, who volunteered at many H1N1 clinics at area high schools earlier in the year, will be the incident commander while FMB Fire Capt. Ed Whiteside will be the medical officer. The Beach will have 1,000 multi-dose vials of the vaccine as requested.
“I think the clinic will be successful,” said Agathen. “Now that the shots are available to us, it’s going to be a good thing to service the people not only on Fort Myers Beach but in ther surrounding area. We will not be giving infant shots though.”
Agathen said the original plans to have people fill out forms while waiting in line are still on. The clinic set-up includes four tables (one for form checkers, a second for medical screeners, a third for the inoculators and a fourth for vaccine refilling) beyond that. The local health department will be supplying two screeners and two inoculators for the event.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Department is expected to provide the clinic with either on-scene deputies or V.O.I.C.E members to help with traffic, while Beach Fire Department fire fighters (both off-duty and ‘subject-to-call’ on-duty personnel) will assist at the clinic.
The H1N1 clinics opened on Oct. 26, at two local high schools. According to LCHD Director Dr. Judith Hartner, although the high school-based clinics have ceased, the health department will be offering H1N1 vaccine at its Pondella office Monday through Friday during regular business hours. In addition, major pharmacy chains now have the vaccine and are offering it in their stores.
“Since the end of October, Lee County has been allocated 179,300 doses of H1N1 vaccine,” said Hartner. “Of that, 147,100 doses have been distributed to public and private providers. As of Dec. 22, 60,489 doses are reported as being administered. Many of the pharmacy chains just received large orders (1,000 doses each) and will not have had time to administer very many of those doses. In the 26 public clinics conducted by the health department we gave approximately 38,000 doses of vaccine.”
In mid-November, officials from LCHD stated the reason for the give-and-take scenario focused on the Beach’s request for only multi-dose vials and that the type of doses received “wasn’t far-reaching enough for all the priority groups.” The health department decided to redistribute the doses to private providers in the community that were specifically focusing on priority groups.
Hartner said the FMB Fire Department was told that doses were available in early December, once the decision to offer vaccine to all was made. However, given the holiday schedule, it was decided that it was best to wait until January to conduct the clinics.
“It is absolutely not too late to get the H1N1 vaccine,” said Hartner. “We have seen the number of cases decrease over the last couple of weeks, but the traditional flu season for Florida begins at the end of January. We do not know if H1N1 will surge again, or if we will see a surge of seasonal influenza or both. January 11 and 12 clinics at the beach are a great opportunity for people who have not been vaccinated to get their shot before the next wave may appear.”