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Crowd control remains top priority for St. Louis, St. Charles vaccine events

Gov. Mike Parson toured the mega clinic in St. Louis as crowds snaked through the community college campus

ST. LOUIS — A line stretched around the St. Louis Community College Forest Park campus Thursday morning, many of the vaccine hopefuls waiting 90 minutes or more to enter the building.

Organizers believe the sign-in process was slowed by large numbers of people arriving hours before their assigned timeslot, as well as issues with appointment link sharing.

"It wasn't what I expected because we all had appointment times so I was a little surprised to see 1,000 people when I got here, but it moved very quickly," Caren Schlossberg-Wood said. "It's a really well-oiled machine. Everybody has been terrific. I think I was in and out in just under an hour and a half."

Patients told us the line was long but moving, as the governor stopped by for a tour.

"They're doing almost 600 an hour, so that kind of rate there's going to be a lot of people getting vaccines in the next couple of days," Gov. Mike Parson said.

One week after St. Charles' long line debacle, Penny and Jerry Brown came back to try again.

"It's a lot better this time because last time we waited a couple of hours," they said. "This time we got in and out in 15 minutes."

RELATED: 'I waited about 4 hours' | Revisions coming after rain slows drive-thru vaccine event in St. Charles

When asked if they were hesitant to come out after last week's failed vaccination attempt, both answered immediately and in unison "yes."

Organizers moved most patients inside, increased the number of vaccinators, and made other small changes to increase output.

"It's a huge challenge, but — since the beginning of the pandemic — we have been building the plane in mid-air," health director Demetrius Cianci-Chapman said.

Cianci-Chapman said the St. Charles health department is giving out more shots during daily vaccine clinics than they ordinarily do in a year.

For some clinic attendees — like Schlossberg-Wood  — they say that it's worth the wait, no matter how long the line.

"I might get a little bit teary. Both of my parents are 90 this past year and I haven't seen either one of them. I haven't been able to visit with them so I'm really excited to go see them," she said.

Organizers at the St. Louis clinic said they were turning away people who had registered using links that were not emailed directly to them. The health department said 3,468 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine were administered.

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