Kristen White, a public health student at Central Michigan University, was helping check people into a mobile vaccine clinic run by CMU and the Mid-Michigan District Health Department on Tuesday morning.
People were eager to get their vaccines, she said.
“People start showing up 20 minutes early -- which I completely understand. I would be getting there half an hour early, too.”
The clinic was in Edmore, a village of about 1,200 people in Montcalm County.
Jodi Brookins-Fisher, who directs CMU’s public health division, said the population might seem insignificant next to the millions of people who need to be immunized to stop the spread of the virus in the state, but bringing vaccines to places like this is a critical part of the vaccination effort.
“This is the community that people know and live in, and so, when we come to them, they’re more likely to be able to get here and to show up.”
The clinic vaccinated about a hundred people in the parking lot of the Edmore Village Office.
One of them, Janet Hansen, lost her husband to COVID-19 in January. They were married 67 years, she said.
Another, Duane Gilbert, said he had already had COVID-19. He had no serious symptoms, he said, but he was getting the vaccine as an extra measure of protection. “I’ve had heart disease and open heart surgery. I just want to be safe with it,” he said.
Three people who were already vaccinated stopped by just to thank the clinic workers for their work.
Dianna Balley, waiting in line for her shot, said she was a bit nervous. “I don’t do needles well, so …” she said, her voice trailing off.
But when she got inside the clinic-on-wheels, Balley found herself buoyed by the ease of the jab.
“That was nothing!” she said.
“Good job,” the administering nurse told her. “You did a great job. Thank you,” she told the nurse.
After an hour of vaccine appointments in Edmore, the clinic staff packed up, ready to move on.
Next, said Brookins-Fisher, the clinic was headed to Six Lakes, an even smaller community down the road to the west.