Opening day of flu shot season

More than 1,000 roll up sleeves at Group Health

By Sharon Salyer

Herald Writer

The single-file line of 115 people stretched out for nearly the full length of an upper floor at Group Health’s Everett Medical Center on Tuesday morning.

Cars jammed the five-level parking garage. So many people were headed for the same destination that when the elevator doors yawned open at one stop, a man greeted oncoming passengers with a smile of familiarity: "Going to the flu shot floor?"

Indeed, they and many others were. Group Health prepared for opening day of its flu shot clinic by having 1,400 doses available.

During these events, three to five nurses administer the shots. Even those at the end of the longest lines said it moved steadily and they got their shots within 20 minutes.

The shots are free to Group Health members and $12 for the public.

K.C. Maxwell of Greenbank spent her time engrossed in an autobiography on Queen Victoria, while her husband, Alex, paged through Stephen Coonts’ "America."

"This week’s convenient; next week’s not," was his staccato explanation of why he braved the opening-day crowds when subsequent offerings of the shots typically have smaller turnouts.

Tuesday afternoon, "it really slowed down," clinic coordinator Desiree Wallis said. By day’s end, nurses had gently asked people more than 1,000 times to "roll up your sleeves" as they administered the shots.

Frances Eaton waited for her 90-year-old mother, Gertrude Matthews of Lynnwood, to get her shot. Eaton said she would get one, too, but from her private physician.

Adam Ils of Everett said he was getting the shot because as a diabetic his doctor urged him to. When asked if he minded the lineup, he responded with a chuckle: "I don’t give a hoot; I don’t have anything else to do."

"It’s like a cattle chute," was the way a smiling Jan Ketelsen of Marysville described the wait.

Judy Dorst, also of Marysville, teaches private piano lessons in her home. Sometimes youngsters come for the lessons, she said, even when they stay home from school because they’re sick.

"Health reasons," Dorst said of why she was getting the shot. "So I don’t get sick."

You can call Herald Writer Sharon Salyer at 425-339-3486 or send e-mail to

salyer@heraldnet.com.

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