My doctor can give me the vaccination for the H1N1 swine flu virus if I want to wait until November eleventh. Which I don’t, really.
Especially since the San Francisco Department of Public Health announced this week that our public health clinics would begin limited hours Thursday, Friday and Saturday with free H1N1 vaccinations. My doctor’s office hasn’t decided whether to charge an administrative fee of $17 or my health plan co-pay of $15. Either way, free and sooner sounds better, right?
So — I headed over to the Castro-Mission Health Center on 17th street at 3pm, thinking I’d be near the head of the line when they started vaccinating people at 4pm.
I arrived shortly after 3pm; there were about 100 people in line, around the clinic building, down the short 17th Street block and ready to curl around onto Prosper. With just three hours planned, more than thirty people an hour needed to get vaccinated in order to get through the folks in line already. That’s more than one person every two minutes — and they weren’t starting for another forty-five minutes!
I’m going to try again tomorrow. Moral of the story? Call your doctor if you want a guaranteed vaccination; I’m keeping my appointment, and if you want a shot, you probably should get your doctor to slot you in. Check with your doctor or check your city’s .gov website and search “flu shots.”
Here’s the San Francisco schedule, for those of you who are at risk for H1N1 and want to try to get vaccinated at a public health clinic tomorrow or Saturday:
When:
Thursday and Friday
4 pm – 7 pm
Saturday
8 am – 12 pm (noon)
Where:
* Castro Mission Health Center – 3850 17th St
* Maxine Hall Health Center – 1301 Pierce St
* Ocean Park Health Center – 1351 24th Ave
* Potrero Hill Health Center – 1050 Wisconsin St
* Silver Avenue Family Health Center – 1525 Silver Ave
* Southeast Health Center – 2401 Keith St
* Mission Neighborhood Health Center – 240 Shotwell
* North East Medical Services – 1520 Stockton
* St. Anthony’s Free Medical Clinic – 150 Golden Gate Ave
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Hope everyone stays healthy this winter!
Do you know if proof of immune-compromised status is required for people who aren’t children or health care workers?
In Michigan I know of at least one case where an economically disadvantaged resident was nearly turned away because he could not show proof of his status — couldn’t afford to get his records from his doctor. He offered to show his scar for his pacemaker as proof; they gave him a hard time before they relented.
Only 6000 doses received in my county with a population of 210,000 residents, of which 56,000 are children 18 and under. They aren’t advertising clinics at all.
Very helpful – thanks Teddy
Statins used to treat cholesterol problems may help with hospitalized patients:
NYT link here
Wow. I got there at around 1:30 PM and I didn’t get my shot until almost 5 the lines was so long when we left I couldn’t believe it. I told my husband if I had come later we probably wouldn’t have gotten our shot today. I have friends and family that went other places that had lines so long that they just drove on by and didn’t even stop to get there shot. Thanks for sharing this information without everybody. It really helps!
*__*
Thanks Teddy. This was very thoughtful of you to share.
The government is giving the H1N1 vaccine to prisoners first before it is allowed to be given to the general public. To do otherwise would be inhuman treatment of those behind bars.
Maybe you should go out and commit a crime.
Our prison system is the only place in American where health care is a basic human right, guaranteed by the courts.