I finally got my flu shot today. The U's clinic was supposed to run 1-7 and they announced they had 840 doses of vaccine. When I showed up at 12:30, there were already several hundred people in line. We wandered down hallways & through tunnels, the line doubling back on itself at times. It was clear that recent news stories have done their job of inspiring a sense of desperation; until this week, there were no lines for shots. Last night they said that people stood outside in single-digit weather for 4 hours to get shots.
A woman handed each person a xerox of flu information, saying that tehy had exactly as many as they had doses. So no xerox, no shot. They also started giving the shots at 12:30, rather than one.
Despite the looonnnnggg line, it moved incredibly quickly. (It helped that they had 8 people to fill out the info forms and 10 giving shots.) From the time I got in line to the time I left the building, it was about 45 minutes. As I left, I heard a girl calling her mom on a cellphone to say that by 1:05 they had already run out of vaccine (or handed all out all the xeroxes that guaranteed you a shot).
The other excitement of the day is that my new bed arrived. It's a beautiful headboard. Unfortunately, the feet on the cross bars are too short; they don't reach the floor. We've filled in the gaps until the replacement parts can be shipped to me.
Posted by rachel at December 12, 2003 01:55 PM
