The planning for Tuesday’s large citywide vaccine clinic at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium — in which thousands of San Franciscans received free swine flu shots — had been in the works long before this particular disease outbreak swept across the globe, according to the city Department of Public Health.
“We have been planning this for a number of years — not this specific vaccine, of course,” department spokeswoman Eileen Shields said. “We have been practicing by doing drills.”
Two years ago, the department did a large-scale drill using the scenario of a smallpox vaccine. As a result, Shields said the knowledge gained from that drill — as well as working out the kinks and assumptions — proved invaluable and were used in this week’s clinic.
She said the city was equipped to provide free swine flu shots to 16,000 people who were at high risk of contracting the H1N1 virus. At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday — a half-hour before the daylong clinic was to end — an estimated 9,000 men, women and children had received the shots.
She also said the department embarked on a widespread campaign to publicize the vaccine clinic, posting it on Web sites, sending out e-mails, holding press conferences and working on an outreach program to both public and private schools in San Francisco.
“That’s why you see a number of children here today,” she said.
Shields said that 450 volunteers were recruited to help out in the effort, including those in the community, nurses, Red Cross members and employees from the Department of Public Health. She also said the city recruited volunteers who spoke a variety of languages — including Chinese, Vietnamese, Hindi, Tagalog, French and German — to address the city’s large foreign-language-speaking community.
A large number of people had camped out the night before. The doors opened at 10 a.m. for the clinic. Those eligible included pregnant women, children and teenagers, caregivers of infants, people with chronic health conditions and health care workers.
Shields said the vast majority of the swine flu cases were not life-threatening, but “for every one out of 1,000 people, H1N1 was fatal. And that’s what we’re here today — to protect that one out of 1,000.”
As of Tuesday, the federal Centers for Disease Control reported shipping more than 11 million doses throughout California.
Mark Ghaly, medical director of the Tuesday clinic and the medical director for the Southeast Health Center in Bayview-Hunters Point, said the swine flu epidemic had raised the public’s awareness on flu and flu-like symptoms. “Vaccination,” he said, “is really an effective way to prevent large cities and populations from getting ill.”
For more information about future clinics, residents are urged to call 311, Shields said.
