BOISE, Idaho — South Central Public Health District on Monday held a mass vaccination clinic for the Twin Falls School District - administering some 450 shots to teachers and staff members.
Scaling mass clinics to a larger population or group would be difficult though. The main reason is the lack of vaccine supply in Idaho.
“We're grateful for the opportunity to provide these options for our staff members and help protect their health,” said Eva Kramer, a spokesperson for the Twin Falls School District.
The employees were inoculated at a mass vaccine site at Canyon Ridge High School. Because the district conducts remote learning on Mondays, it was able to vaccinate its employees without disrupting the school day.
“Working with South Central Public Health District, we determined that we have a big group of people here that want vaccines,” Kramer said. “So, it was a really easy way to get them all in on the same day and get it taken care of.”
Conducting mass vaccine clinics not only benefitted the school district but the health district as well.
“The whole reason we do these clinics is to get as many people access to the vaccine as possible,” SCPHD spokesperson Brianna Bodily said. “[Mass clinics] make use of our nurses’ time in a very efficient way.”
Monday's clinic was the largest one the health district has taken part in so far.
“What we would like to do is definitely offer clinics when we are available and have enough vaccine available,” Bodily said.
Having enough vaccine available has been the hard part throughout the distribution effort. Bodily said mass vaccine clinics are a safe bet for large employers like the Twin Falls School District.
“We knew that there was a great desire for vaccine within the Twin Falls School District and we wanted to provide vaccine in an as effective way as possible,” she said.
However, conducting a mass vaccine clinic that is open to the general population comes with more risk.
“We don't want to come to a fairgrounds and have 1,000 doses ready to go and then use 300 of them,” Bodily said. “And scramble to make use of the other doses we would end up utilizing.”
Central District Health - which has jurisdiction over Ada, Boise, Elmore and Valley counties - has taken a different approach when it comes to getting shots into arms.
A spokesperson for that health district told KTVB that they're focused on getting people appointments because of the limited supply.
Bodily says the difference in approach can be chalked up to the different regions.
“We're serving a different group of people so, what works in our district may not work as well in Central District.”
The clinic for the Twin Falls School District could be used as a road map in the future, but at this time there are no other mass vaccine clinics in the works.
“Practice definitely makes perfect and we were very careful about this,” Bodily said.
The school district said that around 60% of their workers have now been vaccinated. On top of the staff vaccinated at the clinic on Monday, more than a hundred others went out to various local providers to get the vaccine.
The same kind of clinic will be held again in the next few weeks so those who got vaccinated can get their second shot.
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