Carson City Health & Human Services Department hosted a free immunization clinic to protect area residents from seasonal flu and to practice emergency preparedness procedures for mass vaccination.

“Call the Shots” free flu shot event was held on Saturday, October 13, 2007 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Carson City Senior Center, 911 Beverly Drive. According to Dr. Vicky Fogelman, Director of Carson City Health & Human Services, “We were scheduled to begin vaccinating at 9:00 a.m. but the public was lining up around the building and down the street, so we opened the clinic 40 minutes early. The entire clinic was a huge success.”

Carson City Health and Human Services is testing its ability to quickly immunize large numbers of people within a short period of time to help us prepare for a public health emergency. “Based on our performance on Saturday, we could vaccinate over 600 people an hour. Each year that we test ourselves, we become more efficient at this process. We tested a drive-thru clinic this year, and it was a big hit,” Dr. Fogelman reported.

Carson City Health and Human Services depends on volunteers from the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) and other organizations, such as the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), the American Legion, MedDirect, the Nevada Public Health Foundation, Rural Clinics Community Mental Health Centers, the Sheriff’s Reserves, and Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) to help with the clinic. More than 90 citizen volunteers also helped to staff this real-life exercise. Dr. Fogelman praised the performance of the staff and volunteers. “These organizations and volunteers are our life-blood, and we couldn’t put on an event of this magnitude without them. Their dedication and commitment is truly amazing, and we can’t thank them enough.”

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