WWNO skyline header graphic
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Local Newscast
Hear the latest from the WWNO/WRKF Newsroom.

Support local, independent journalism on WWNO with your Member Fest gift now! Click the donate button or Call 844-790-1094.

NOLA Health Department Works Out COVID-19 Vaccination Kinks Through Flu Shot Events

Bobbi-Jeanne Misick
/
WWNO
Lawrence Thompson gets his flu shot at New Orleans Deptartment of Health vaccination event at First Grace United Methodist Church. Dec. 11, 2020.

At 1 p.m. Friday, a short line of people rounded the corner of busy Canal Street and shady North Clark Street in front of First Grace United Methodist Church to get their free flu vaccines. The New Orleans Health Department had organized another of its mass vaccination exercises to prepare for COVID-19 immunization efforts.

At First Grace, 20 volunteers were there to greet residents, fill out their information and direct them to the two vaccination stations set up inside the church foyer and the one set up outdoors for anyone who did not feel safe indoors. Seven medical professionals manned the vaccination stations, preparing needles with .5 cubic centimeters of the Fluzone vaccine.

Once the stations were opened, the line moved quickly. But then, despite the efforts of volunteers holding up signs in English and Spanish directing passersby to the church, there was no line for the rest of the day. The event, which lasted until 6 p.m., vaccinated 206 people, compared to the 725 that were immunized at a similar event at Audubon Zoo in October.

“It’s still really good for a late-season flu event in December,” city Health Department Emergency Preparedness Lead Meredith McInturff said. “Most people get it in October and September, so this is really encouraging.”

The health department has been assessing different aspects of the vaccination process with each flu shot drive, Sarah Babcock, director of Healthy Environments and Communications, explained. On Friday the department tested inputting vaccination information into the state’s database in real time, instead of entering the data in the days after the event, which it did following the Audubon Zoo exercise.

“That was one of the big things we were practicing today, to see how much time that adds to our flow rate,” Babcock said.

Credit Bobbi-Jeanne Misick / WWNO
/
WWNO
The flu vaccination site set up at First Grace United Methodist Church in New Orleans. Dec. 11, 2020.

Given the low number of participants at this flu drive, the city may not yet have an accurate gauge of how long data entry will take during COVID-19 vaccinations with higher participation.

“Today was a little bit slower than some of our other events and so it’s hard to tell when you have a backlog of people how that flow rate goes,” Babcock said, adding that the actual time that data entry took would be assessed later.

McInturff said that in the days following the event, the department would also review its social media efforts around the flu vaccination drive to see if residents engaged with the messaging.

A NOLA Ready Facebook post got 64-year-old David Dumonde’s attention. He took advantage of the outdoor vaccination station.

“I have been hesitant to go to a pharmacy, just because of closed space and all that,” Dumonde said.

Credit Bobbi-Jeanne Misick / WWNO
/
WWNO
Dr. Pamela Branning administers a flu shot to David Dumonde outside First Grace United Methodist Church in New Orleans. Dec. 11, 2020.

A large part of the social media effort was aimed at New Orleans’ Spanish-speaking community. The Department of Health utilized bilingual volunteers and hired two Spanish interpreters from TraduccióNola to engage with people who prefer communicating in Spanish.

“I think it makes people more comfortable with the idea of going to do something like this, because I know from experience that when you don’t know the language, that it can be intimidating enough to detract you from going,” registered interpreter Amelia Smith said.

Smith and another interpreter accompanied Spanish speakers throughout the whole vaccination process.

Retired physician and volunteer Dr. Pamela Branning was administering flu shots on Friday and suggested that to improve the process, the immunization forms for Spanish speakers may need to include some English translations.

“So if we have forms in Spanish, but they’re being evaluated by non-Spanish speakers, we found out today that we probably need to put a little English in there. That’s just one thing we didn’t know until we ran through it,” Branning said.

Branning was stationed outside, where families and anyone who was uncomfortable with being indoors with strangers were directed.

Although there was not much traffic at First Grace, Katie Garcia and her four daughters beat the rush hour to get their flu shots just before the event closed. Garcia saw a news report about the vaccine drive at 5:15 p.m. and rushed her girls to the church.

Her youngest daughter, a 2-year-old, furrowed her brow and looked down at the needle as one of the medical volunteers inched it closer to her tiny arm. Her older sister tried unsuccessfully to distract her. The toddler threw her head back and cried once the shot was administered, but quickly recovered when she was offered two stickers instead of the customary one for each vaccine participant.

“I thought she was going to continue to cry for a long time, but she didn’t,” Garcia said. “She did a good job.”

Credit Bobbi-Jeanne Misick / WWNO
/
WWNO
A girl braces against the pinch of the flu shot. Dec. 11, 2020.

The lack of a long line worked in baker and KRVS DJ Diego Martin-Perez’s favor. Martin-Perez was delivering his hand-made loaves of bread by bicycle on Norman C. Francis Parkway when he saw “Free Flu Shots'' written on the bike path in pink chalk, with arrows pointing to First Grace. Volunteers holding signs on the street corner directed him to the church, and one even offered to watch his bike while he got vaccinated.

“I wasn’t planning on doing this, but they did a good job with flagging me down. So I figured I’d stop real quick. The bread can wait for a second,” Martin-Perez said after receiving his shot. “I feel fine right now, a little sore. I have to make bread later tonight, so I chose the shot on the non-kneading arm.”

Aside from the recommended 10-minute waiting time after receiving the shot to see if he would have an allergic reaction, Martin-Perez said that the process took less than five minutes.

Credit Bobbi-Jeanne Misick / WWNO
/
WWNO
Diego Martin-Perez rides his bike outside the flu vaccination site at First Grace United Methodist Church in New Orleans. Dec. 11, 2020.

“When there’s no line, it’s easy to go through that process very quickly,” McInturff said.

She expects that the COVID-19 vaccination process will take longer because patients are unfamiliar with the vaccine and may ask a lot of questions.

People getting flu shots shared mixed feelings about the COVID-19 vaccine. Fifty-year-old carpenter, musician and father Lawrence Thompson said he’s waiting to see how healthcare workers fare (not that he can get it before they do).

“To be real with you, I’m not gonna be the first one out there to run after it,” Thompson said. “I want to take my time and be cautious before I make a decision to get it.”

Phlebotomist Frenchel Hamilton works in a long-term care facility. After hospital workers, she and her patients will be next in line for the vaccine.

“I’m definitely ready,” Hamilton said. “I mean, something is absolutely better than nothing at all, so you have to start somewhere.”

Bobbi-Jeanne Misick is the justice, race and equity reporter for the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration between NPR, WWNO in New Orleans, WBHM in Birmingham, Alabama and MPB-Mississippi Public Broadcasting in Jackson. She is also an Ida B. Wells Fellow with Type Investigations at Type Media Center.

👋 Looks like you could use more news. Sign up for our newsletters.

* indicates required
New Orleans Public Radio News
New Orleans Public Radio Info