ENFIELD — Free vaccine clinics have been going viral as this year’s flu season commences.
The number of vaccines doled out at the clinics organized by the Public Health Council of the Upper Valley are on track to be at 2021 levels, when demand peaked, Alice Ely, the council’s director, said.
Last year, the annual clinic in Windsor provided about 40 vaccines compared to 144 this year, for example, Ely said.
“We’re in this age right now where we’re being told there’s a lot of misinformation and a lot of people who are scared of vaccines,” Ely said.
Even so, “there are a lot of people showing up for vaccines who still think it’s important,” Ely said at Enfield’s clinic on Thursday.
Despite prevalent anti-vaccine attitudes, including those of the nation’s top public health official, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Enfield resident Kiah Laramie, 30, said she trusts the science behind vaccines.
“Vaccines are safe and effective, and they’re great for public health,” Laramie said. “It’s people’s public duty to get vaccinated.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone six months and older get a flu vaccine annually, with rare exceptions. During typical flu seasons, millions of people get the virus, hundreds of thousands of people are hospitalized and thousands of people die from flu-related causes, according to the CDC.
The vaccine has been shown to reduce the risk of needing medical treatment for the flu by as much as 60%, according to the CDC.
Other residents have long been going to the Upper Valley clinics, which they find convenient.
“We usually come here every year because it’s quick and easy and doesn’t cost anything, so it’s wonderful,” Enfield resident Sharon Pescetta, 69, said with her husband standing beside her.
“As long as you don’t get here at the beginning,” Pescetta said, having attended the clinics, which can draw big crowds, for around a decade. “Just give it a little time for the first wave of people that are really handicapped to come through, and then you can breeze through and go home and have dinner.”
The free vaccines don’t require any health insurance, just a name, date of birth and a little bit of health history, Ely said.
Beginning around 2008 with one clinic in Enfield, the clinics have been held annually from September to November. Now there are six across the region so that people in rural communities who may have barriers traveling longer distances are able to access the vaccine, Ely said.
Even though they come at no cost to attendees, the cost to operate each clinic is around $9,000 with staffing and supplies, Ely said.
“This is really a tremendous service that we’re providing to the community,” she said.
Last Thursday’s clinic at the Enfield community building drew 255 attendees — about 50 fewer than the year previous — with 166 over the the age of 65, Ely wrote in a email on Tuesday.
Those over 65 are at higher risk of developing serious flu complications, according to the CDC. They receive a different vaccine that further boosts their immune response, Ely wrote.
Donated by Dartmouth Health, the vaccines are administered by volunteers from the Geisel School of Medicine, many of whom are first-year students. The partnership began both to get health care to rural communities and medical students out of the classroom.
“Studying and taking exams is one thing,” said Dina Abdalla, a second-year medical student at Geisel and an administrative leader at the clinic, “but then actually practically doing all of the stuff that we’re here to do is what’s actually fulfilling.”
Dartmouth Health provides supervising physicians and nurses. The Lebanon Rotary Club provides logistical assistance.
On Thursday, the club had about seven volunteers helping with traffic control in Enfield.
President of the Lebanon Rotary Club Marilyn Bedell, 74, sees the value in vaccines both as a retired nurse administrator and as someone who nearly died from measles as a child, she said, as she directed patients through the clinic.
“I just really, really believe in the importance of doing what we can to try to prevent communicable diseases,” Bedel said.
Other than Ely, those working at the clinic were there on a volunteer basis.
“Everybody you see around you is here because they want to be here,” Ely said.
The next clinic will be on Saturday, Oct. 11, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Orford Congregational Church, located at 617 NH-10, Orford. And the last will be on Thursday, Oct. 30, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Mascoma Community Health Center, located at 18 Roberts Rd, Canaan.
