Flu shot clinic allows health department to prepare for COVID-19 vaccinations

AVON — Encouraging residents to get the influenza vaccine is a priority for Lorain County Public Health every year around this time, with winter and flu season just around the corner. But this year's push has taken on a second purpose: allowing the health department to test ideas and procedures for when a COVID-19 vaccine becomes widely available. A flu shot clinic held in Avon Middle School on Thursday afternoon provided an opportunity to try out ideas that Lorain County Public Health believes will simplify the vaccination process and relieve some of the apprehension many people will surely feel before it is administered. "The one thing we are doing differently here is using their vehicles as the staging area for filling out paperwork," said Mark Adams, the county's deputy health commissioner. The goal was to find ways to prevent crowding at vaccine locations, in line with guidance to practice social distancing. When the H1N1 "swine flu" pandemic hit, Adams said people waiting to be vaccinated would be directed into an anteroom where they would fill out paperwork. "Even though you had the (vaccine administration) tables spread apart, you were funneling them into a room and having them congregate," he said. This time around, plans are being made to keep people separated and maximize the space inside buildings where vaccines are being given. Adams envisions the gymnasium and field house at Lorain County Community College as an ideal location where the vaccination process can be optimized to move efficiently, if people fill out the paperwork in their vehicles before entering. Having the patients' paperwork in hand before they enter the building would allow public health workers to split them up by age and risk level. "That's what we are trying to practice. Did we come up with directions well enough to where, for even a flu shot, people pull in and get this sheet of paper, can they follow the directions?" Adams said. Seventy-three people received flu shots at Avon Middle School on Thursday. Not all of them followed the new process perfectly right away, but public health workers kept a close eye on what parts could be made clearer and what seemed to be working well. One idea that appeared off to a rough start was a Swensons-style "lights on for service" concept, where patients who needed assistance with paperwork would turn their vehicle's headlights on. Adams quickly realized it would be too difficult for public health workers to catch all the headlights in a larger-scale vaccination event, so he rotated the lights-on-for-service signs away from view. Beyond the increased efficiency of having patients start the vaccine process in their cars, Lorain County Public Health hopes it will reduce the "sporting event" atmosphere when large numbers of people are crowded into a room. "When we start doing the (COVID-19) vaccines, we know there is going to be some apprehension to it," Adams said. "So we want to try to make it as calming, relaxing and as non-excitable as possible." Contact Dylan Reynolds at (440) 329-7123 or dreynolds@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @drey1357.