VACCINE: A recipient’s experience

My husband and I had appointments Tuesday for our first COVID vaccines at Kootenai Health. When we arrived, we found the check-in desk was in a small hallway with no room for social distancing. Then we had to use an elevator to go down to the basement where a line of 8 or 9 people stood waiting to be called into one of two rooms for vaccination.

Once we were called into a room, we were stunned at how small and crowded the room was. Three tables were set up on the far side of the room for the nurses who were doing the vaccinations. Another check-in desk was at the door where staff there handed us tablet computers for us to use to complete forms.

As we sat, we noticed the chairs were not 6 feet apart. Some were within 3 feet of each other. We were finally called into line to wait for our vaccines.

People were walking close to us as we waited. We finally received our vaccines and were then told to wait for 15 minutes in case of an adverse reaction. Again, chairs were way too close together.

We have been sheltering at home since last March with only two trips to town for doctors’ appointments. I hope we did not catch COVID-19 Tuesday in a very close, crowded, not socially distanced environment. It was scary. Kootenai Health appears to not take CDC guidelines seriously, and should do a better job than this.

ROBIN JENKINS

Rathdrum