The local St. Louis news yesterday carried story after story on how crazy the Vaccination day in St. Charles County was going. I say crazy because it was a traffic and vaccination total botch up. 4000 people were registered to get their shots at the Family Arena/Convention Center and health workers and the National Guard had hoped to administer 400 an hour.
Well, wouldn't you just know the traffic came to a stand still and backed up for several miles. People were quoted saying they were still sitting in their cars hours after their scheduled appointment time. Most needed a bathroom.
Frankly, as I was reading about this throughout the day, and it didn't end until 10 at night, hours later than planned, my belief was that way too many people headed over there long before their appointment time. Get there early they thought. And when a couple thousand do this, it's never good.
This is why I was so impressed with where we got our shots, Memorial Hospital in Belleville. Our instructions were very clear. Please do not arrive earlier than 15 minutes before your appointment time and if you do get there early, stay in your car until it's time. If you have an appointment and a time slot, they will have shot for you. Just like St. Charles. Those people could have had a much better day if they all had used common sense. Or maybe the convention center should have sent out this advice ahead of time.
Why oh why did so many in St. Charles believe it was necessary to go hours early? If everyone would have gone when scheduled the people ahead of them would have been gone and parking lots would be fine all day as would the highways. This is what Covid has done to us. We panic.
But this getting out early for things is nothing new in St. Louis. It just has to stop during the vaccine times.