Instead of fast food, it was fast flu shots Friday for hundreds of motorists converging on drive-through vaccination clinics at community colleges in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
At Moorpark College, about 100 cars idled in the morning chill, snaking around orange traffic cones as drivers inched to the front of the line. Over the next four hours, nurses there administered more than 500 doses of flu vaccine. At College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, 1,076 people were vaccinated, said Deborah Davenport, a director of community services for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
"It's free and I get to stay in my car," said Summer Healthcote, her 7-year-old son, Andrew, strapped into a booster seat in the back of a green Suburban at the Moorpark campus. "I couldn't pass it up."
But public health officials said the one-day exercise wasn't designed to cater to Southern California's time-strapped, car-crazed culture. If the drive-through concept proves successful, they said, it could become the model for speedily inoculating entire cities in the event of a deadly pandemic or bioterrorism.
"This is how we would vaccinate the entire population of Ventura County in 48 to 72 hours if necessary," said Dan Wall, a spokesman for the Ventura County Public Health Department. "This is a good opportunity to test it out."
Vaccines at Friday's test run were free. Flu shots delivered car-side are not entirely new. Hospitals have offered them in the past at scattered clinics in order to inoculate older people and those with limited mobility.
But mass vaccinations have begun cropping up in recent years in response to 9/11 and heightened awareness about the potential for bioterrorism or a widespread viral outbreak, such as smallpox. Many of the clinics are funded by state and federal anti-terrorism grants because they are viewed as preparatory drills, officials said.
Los Angeles County's Public Health Department pioneered the model with a Santa Clarita clinic last year. Orange County health officials also gave it a try, with mixed results. Logistical problems can quickly throw a monkey wrench into plans, officials said.
Traffic control is crucial, said Howard Sutter, spokesman for the Orange County Health Care Agency. At Cal State Fullerton last year, several "walk-ups" weaved through the lines of cars to see if they could get shots, he said.
"You have the potential for an incident even though we've never had one," Sutter said.
