The National City Fire Department is hosting free influenza vaccinations and Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots weekly every Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Fire Station 34, now through Dec. 15.
National City Fire Captain and Paramedic Scott Robinson, who heads up the program said the department gives out about 1,500 flu shots annually and has given about 8,000 vaccines since the program began five years ago.
Robinson initially organized the clinic to administer flu shots while he was earning his Masters in Public Health but said having an established approach in place “gave us a leg up on helping with the pandemic because we already had the partnerships lined up” and were able to smoothly add in COVID-19 immunization shots when they were released.
Although the clinic is intended for locals, they will not turn anyone away and identification is not checked. The goal is to offer vaccinations to uninsured or underinsured National City residents to cut down on emergency situations.
Ideally, Robinson said, having more residents immunized against influenza will cut down on the number of 911 calls the department receives each year when residents get sick and are in need of emergency help, many of whom have no insurance or are underinsured.
Typically, there are three tiers of care involved in public health outreach, Robinson explained: a primary plan for preventing major spread of a disease, a secondary approach to keep an already-existing problem from getting worse and a tertiary, emergency response in an acute treatment situation.
“Firefighters often end up getting called out for those acute treatment situations which are the most expensive because someone is getting transported to the emergency room,” Robinson said.
He realized the fire department, as trusted public servants, could “step it back to prevention” and stave off some of those expensive responses.
“The underinsured are in that precarious place in society” where we have the ability to help them, Firefighter Mike Mejia said.
Robinson said he does not have exact figures but sees some sort of proof immunization clinics could be called financially beneficial based on years where the influenza strain used in development is closely aligned with what actually ends up spreading.
Point Loma Nazarene University professor and public health nurse Iman Autman, who was on hand to oversee the nursing students who administer the immunizations observed that besides the health benefit for immunized residents to potentially avoid the flu— and avoid spreading it to others— students are “better prepared for public nursing if they know what’s going on in the community” and have connected with the public.
“A hospital nurse doesn’t have the same perspective as a public health nurse. A public health nurse has seen how the community lives, asks ‘how can we help you be healthy?’ in a setting that is familiar to people” Autman said.
Residents can sometimes be skeptical but tend to trust firefighters “because we go into people’s houses all the time” and are usually seen as there to provide help, Robinson said, an observation echoed by Autman.
“Also, from students, I’ve heard ‘we love to be around firefighters who have a passion for what they do,” Autman said.
Still, the clinic has been slower this year, Robinson said.
He hypothesized the slower response might be because of vaccine fatigue or simply having fewer sick people out in society after several years of vigilant masking and less public activity.
Although many people have developed more frequent handwashing and are more aggressively preventing the spread of any disease, there is a wave of Respiratory Syncytial Virus sweeping the nation and is frequently seen in young children, Robinson said.
“Parents on the edge with vaccinations need to talk to their first responders and doctors, have those conversations,” Autman said.
“We highly encourage everyone, even those who are tired of hearing about a virus” to get vaccinated, Robinson said.
Fire Station 34 is located at 343 East 16th St. in National City.
