The Cattle Call

Today I decided, after MUCH deliberation, to try and get the swine flu vaccine for my kids. Our local health department was offering it for free this afternoon. In my naive approach, I figured arriving an hour prior to the start time would be sufficient for a minimal waiting period. Instead, when I pulled up an hour before they opened their doors, there were already 500-600 people in line. I parked, and began to trek to the end of the line, which winded behind a building and started to curve around the parking lot. After five minutes of walking I still had not reached the end of the line, and I decided to scrap it. The media and the health department have lorded over us all the necessity of this vaccine yet, we are expected to herd together like a bunch of cattle and wait for hours on end with young children in a line. Seriously, if I am waiting in line for two or more hours, there had better be a really fun ride at the end of it, not a shot. I barely have the patience for that kind of wait, let alone my four year old and seven year old. There were hard core vaccine waiters too, I mean it looked like they had camped out, with their blankets and lawn chairs. You would think it was the day after Thanksgiving and we were awaiting for the doors to open for some killer sale. I was on the fence about the vaccine anyway,with so many conflicting reports about it, for every doctor that supports it, you will find one that doesn't. The average person can hardly make an educated decision. At any rate, the decision was made for me today.