ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. — St. Charles County Department of Public Health officials held the first mass vaccination event in western St. Charles County on Friday at the GM Assembly Center in Wentzville. The event was co-sponsored by Warren and Lincoln counties.
When the six-hour event came to an end at 3 p.m., 545 people had been vaccinated.
Said Doug Bolnick of the St. Charles County Department of Public Health: “We do need quite a bit of space to put something like this on. The Family Arena has been a convenient and available location, so we didn’t really look too far to western St. Charles County. But when we had the opportunity here with the GM plant, we took advantage of it.”
People lined up in their cars in one corner of the parking lot for registration, before moving to another to get the shot, and to wait to make sure they didn’t have an adverse reaction.
GM employee Andrew Gardener was asked why he waited until now to get vaccinated.
“I really don’t know,” Gardener said, “but I decided now is the time since it was here at work.”
Mackenzie Wilmes turned out to get the shot.
“This event was amazing,” Wilmes said. “It was really fast and really easy.”
Missouri Air National Guard troops were on location to assist.
Airman First-Class Camille Frazier said, “At this specific site we are helping to deliver paperwork to patients, we’re helping get them screened, and helping them get their shots administered.”
Cynthia Zeigler, another GM employee said: “It was extremely convenient. I live just 10 minutes from here — straight shot on Interstate 70, so it was very convenient.”
Bolnick said 40% of the population is vaccinated in St. Charles County.
“It works out good for us to have a drive-thru event like this,” Bolnick said. “It helps us with manpower, but more importantly, it helps out with people coming to get vaccinated.”
Health officials say people were in and out of "the clinic" in as little as 30-45 minutes. Compared with other, similar events, that’s fast. Either health officials are all getting really good at this, or the numbers of people wanting to get vaccinated are down.
Or both.