Photo by Deb Jacques Warren resident Kaitlynn Gillian, 12, cringes in anticipation as a nurse prepares to administer FluMist, the intranasal version of the H1N1 flu vaccine, during the clinic.

By Cortney Casey
C & G Staff Writer

STERLING HEIGHTS — Local residents lined up hours in advance outside Freedom Hill County Park Oct. 28 for the first installment in a series of free H1N1 vaccine clinics.

The Macomb County Health Department planned to administer the intranasal form of the immunization Oct. 28-29 and the injectable version Oct. 30-31. The Oct. 28 session was the first community clinic scheduled in the area.

While news outlets were reporting gridlock near Freedom Hill in the early morning hours Oct. 28, with lines of traffic extending west of Schoenherr down Metropolitan Parkway, the congestion cleared quickly once the gates opened just before 8:30 a.m. The clinic was set to begin at 9 a.m.

An orderly queue of people, mainly parents with children in tow, extended from Independence Hall toward the Freedom Hill Amphitheatre, with only a few visible hiccups caused by would-be line jumpers.

Warren resident Misty Ryan said she’d never before sought a flu immunization for herself or her son, Brandon Paquette, 7. But the nature of her job and the hype over H1N1 convinced her to come out Oct. 28.

“I decided to get my son the vaccine because I’m a health care worker; I work in a doctor’s office,” she said. “I deal with lots of people and patients every day. And he’s also in school and day care, and so he’s with a lot of different people throughout the day and it could spread very easily. I love my son and I just want to keep him safe.”

Ryan said she didn’t mind waiting in the lengthy line.

“You know what, there’s a lot of people in this world, so it’s going to be a little bit hard to get something that everybody wants at the same time,” she said. “It would be like that anywhere you go. So it’s something that you’ve got to deal with if you want something.”

Colleen Babbitt of Fraser, who brought her two children, heard others showed up as early as 4:30 a.m. to stake their place, but she was only about 20 cars back from the front of the line when she arrived at Freedom Hill around 7 a.m.

“I have to say, I’m pretty impressed,” she said. “It turned out that we’re pretty far up in line, so I’m pretty excited.”

Babbitt — who said she also got immunized for the seasonal flu this year, for the first time in about four years — opted to pursue the H1N1 vaccine “because both of my kids — I’m just worried, I’d rather take a chance of the risks they’re saying and make sure they’re healthy.

“I don’t know if it’s a big media hype or not, but I’m pretty worried about it,” she said. “It’s kind of scary.”

Kathy Riddle, a data processor with the Macomb County Health Department, was responsible for tallying attendees as they streamed into the building. She thought the process seemed to be working well.

“It takes a long time because everything has to be done in a certain order,” she said, ticking off the steps preceding inoculation, including completing a health form, reading materials regarding privacy and the vaccine itself, and getting screened to ensure eligibility.

FluMist, the intranasal vaccine, was only intended for “healthy, non-pregnant persons” who are 2-24 years old; are 25-49 years old and live with or care for infants under 6 months old; or are health care or emergency medical personnel ages 25-49.

The injectable vaccine was intended for anyone 6 months-24 years old; pregnant women; new parents and household contacts of children under 6 months old; adults ages 25-65 with medical conditions that increase their risk of suffering influenza complications; and health care or emergency medical personnel, regardless of age.

Monitored by Macomb County sheriff’s deputies, the line wound through the building, with attendees filling out paperwork in the hallways before entering the main room, where Health Department employees quickly administered the vaccines at numbered stations.

Many recipients walked out swabbing their noses with Kleenex and children bore stickers declaring, “It’s cool to be healthy.”

As he surveyed the bustle of activity, Michael Parent, director of the Macomb County Health Department’s Family Health Services Division, said everything appeared to be going smoothly.

“Certainly we expected to have a large number of people first thing this morning,” he said, “and that’s what we had.”

Running such clinics is nothing new for the Health Department, he noted, but the task of vaccinating against H1N1 was compounded by the “magnitude of the problem.” 

For more information on the Macomb County H1N1 clinics, call the Health Department’s flu hotline at (586) 466-7923 or visit www.macombcountymi.gov/publichealth. For more flu information from the MDCH, visit www.michigan.gov/flu.

Freedom Hill County Park is located on Metropolitan Parkway, east of Schoenherr, in Sterling Heights.