Code Neon Blue!

Last weekend, a whole bunch of people got together and proved that it IS possible to do a huge, multi-agency exercise on the public dime, AND do it efficiently, AND do it so the general public gets real-time benefits.

No, I am not being sarcastic.

Colorado had a Full Scale Mass Vaccination Exercise, and I was a volunteer here in Prowers County. The idea was to pretend a flu pandemic, similar to the one in 1918, has hit the US.

Nine million people have the flu now, in the exercise scenario (which means roughly five million of them have no health insurance coverage, by my rough figurings. But that’s a rant for another day), and that’s just the tip of the second wave iceberg.

Prowers and the other 20 counties taking part in this exercise got their shares of flu shots flown in by the National Guard. It seemed to me the various agencies involved were trying to test every step of the plan as realistically as possible. Not in a way that would freak the public out, of course. It was well publicized around here as a practice run, with FREE flu shots as the reward for being a good citizen and helping test out the plan.

Ours was a drive-through set-up. People in cars (and a couple of motorcycles) lined up at the gates of the county fairgrounds, where they were given forms to fill out. (That’s where I was stationed.) Then they were directed to the next station and guided into one of three lanes, depending on how many were in a car and whether there were children to vaccinate.

The last stage was the observation area, where people waited to make sure they didn’t have a reaction to the shot, which is standard medical procedure.

I think it went very smoothly, especially when you consider that the top of the command chain is FEMA. (!) There was a long wait in line for the early birds, but once they got their forms, people were out in 20 minutes or less. Coming in cars DID use up gas, but on the other hand, people were not crowded into buildings to share germs, which would be a big concern in a real pandemic. Also, no one had to stand in line for hours, as happened with the flu shot exercise our county participated in two years ago.

The exercise ran from 8:30 to 12:00, and in that time 582 people, from babies to seniors, got flu shots!

After we shut down at noon and put all the stuff away, we had what is called a “hotwash". You might think this was something fun to help us relax, like a communal shower or soak in a big hot tub. But sadly not. All we did was talk about our observations and make suggestions to improve the exercise. I went home dusty, sore, and with unfulfilled curiosity about the derivation of the term “hotwash". Does it ever come with a hotwax? Is there also a coldwash?

No one ever tells me anything.