WAVE 3 TV Louisville, KY | Long lines on first day of Louisville H1N1 clinic

Long lines on first day of Louisville H1N1 clinic

By Janelle MacDonald - bio | email
Posted by Charles Gazaway - email

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - Thousands fired up their engines and rolled up their sleeves lined up to take advantage of day one of the Metro's first public H1N1 vaccine clinic. All day long, cars snaked around the parking lot at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium and they were still coming late into the afternoon. Each person has a different reason for showing up and each one having weighed the pros and cons of getting the vaccine versus passing it up. We rode along with one mother who walked us through her choice.

When Leslie Horrell woke up Wednesday, she wasn't even sure she was going to end up at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.

“I've never done anything like this before,” said Horrell, who didn’t make her decision to come until Wednesday morning. “We thought that the clinic was this weekend and we were going to research a little more.”

But after weighing the options, Horrell decided not to risk getting sick. She’d rather risk taking the vaccine. So she put her children, Sophia and Matthew, in the car and lined up with thousands of others to get vaccinated.

“Getting in was really confusing because they have a job fair a block down,” Horrell said. “Now we're just kind of sitting in the cars waiting.”

Horrell had the waiver forms for her children that said she has looked at the risks and the benefits of getting the H1N1 vaccine.

“There are the different ingredients in the shots that can also have different side effects or make your kids sick, so it's a really difficult decision on what to do for what's best for them,” said Horrell.

After about a 45 minute wait, Sophia and Matthew were vaccinated. For mom, it was the end of a tough morning that followed a tough decision, but it is one that Horrell says brought her peace of mind.

Metro public health officials again stress the two-day clinic is for those in high-risk groups only. The clinic started the day with about 15,000 doses of vaccine, but estimate there are some 300,000 high-risk people in the Metro.

The clinic runs until 8 p.m. Wednesday and will resume at 8 a.m. Thursday.

Copyright 2009 WAVE-TV and Raycom Media. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.