IU administers 1st round of H1N1 vaccinations

It was the first and only day of the IU Health Center immunization clinic for the H1N1 virus, and IU alumna Samantha Gonzalez sat in a chair at Assembly Hall waiting for her reserved time to receive the vaccine.

Gonzalez signed up for an 11 a.m. time slot on the first day of the first week of the clinic.

Gonzalez said she works at the Campus Children’s Center and usually starts at noon. However, she was asked to come into work early that day.

“I got here at 9:30 hoping they started the clinic at 9,” she said. “I felt like one of those silly women on the news, showing up so early.”

The health center received 980 shots from the Indiana State Department of Health, enough to open up the first day of the clinic on Monday, said Steve Chaplin, assistant
managing editor for the Office of University Communications.

“We have no idea when or how many more we’ll get,” he said. “We want to distribute them when they’re available, as soon as they’re available.”

By 10:45 a.m., more than 25 people had lined up waiting to receive the shot.

Three stations were set up at the clinic in the front of the South Entrance at Assembly Hall: a ticket station, a consent form station and a vaccination station.

IU students and staff members arriving at their registered time went through the first two stations before standing in a roped line to wait for an available nurse. Five tables were set up with a nurse at each one.

Betsy Jones, a nurse at the clinic, said she used to work for the IU Health Center for years.

“I give the shots,” she said. “And if they have any questions, I can answer them. I give the shots and comfort, for the nervous ones.”

Jones said she expected as many people to show up to the clinic as shots available. Everybody has been waiting for the shots for so long, she said, that she imagined she would be busy all day.

As the first group of people began to arrive, Jones set up her table, lining up the shots and opening the Band-Aids.

“It’s just more efficient,” she said. “People have to get back to class, have to get back to their lives. They don’t have time to wait for me to open a Band-Aid.”

Elisha Hardy, a first-year master’s student, said a professor sent an e-mail telling his class to sign up for the vaccine.

“Being a master’s student, I have zero free time,” she said. “I can’t get sick.”

Hardy said she was a little scared to get the shot.

“Some people say it’s new so you shouldn’t get it,” Hardy said. “It’s a risk either way. I just decided it’s worth the risk.”

Nurses began administering the shots about 10 minutes before 11 a.m. Gonzalez left the building a few minutes later.

“It was fine,” Gonzalez said. “It was really hardly even a stick. I expected it to burn a little, but it was fine.”