Kendall County inoculates more than 4,000 in first mass vaccination events

Kendall County Health Department officials commandeered the Yorkville High School gymnasium last weekend for two mass vaccination events, inoculating thousands of seniors and local teachers for COVID-19 in the first of many pushes to put an end to the pandemic.

Armed with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, volunteer health care workers inoculated 2,100 seniors Saturday, Feb. 6, and another 2,000 educators Sunday, Feb. 7. All those vaccinated will return to the high school gym in three weeks to receive a second dose during another round of mass vaccination clinics.

“This shows people trust the process. They trust the vaccine itself,” said RaeAnn VanGundy, executive director of the Kendall County Health Department. “We’re all in this together. Let’s get rid of this [the virus].”

The high school gym would have been unrecognizable to many area residents. Registration tables lined the lobby and hallways. On the floor of the gym, a steady flow of volunteers and residents awaiting their shot moved back and forth between 40 tables lining the room. At the center, nursing staff diluted the vaccines with a chemical to ready them to be administered. Medical beds with privacy curtains sat to the side, ready for anyone who might experience an adverse reaction.

All told, 158 volunteers lent a hand for the mass vaccinations, from nurses and retired doctors to law enforcement and local officials.

“It feels great to be able to have the teachers vaccinated,” volunteer Karen Metzdorf said.

“We’re all trying to get back into the classroom,” Scott Freischlag a teacher in Oswego School District 308, said. “Whatever the new normal is. Whatever it takes to get us back to where we need to be.”

Indeed, the mass vaccination process is a well-oiled and paperless machine. Volunteers scan residents QR codes at multiple points to ensure eligible people are receiving the coveted shots. On the gym floor, nurses raise color coded flags to signal that they need more doses, a new participant or a relief nurse.

In the coming days, those vaccinated will receive an email from the health department scheduling a second dose. Officials stressed that the registration link for the second dose must not be shared with other people to avoid overwhelming the health department’s efforts. VanGundy emphasized that vaccination events will become more widely available to the public as the county receives more vaccine shipments. But she said the local vaccination campaign could last well into spring.

The future of the county’s vaccine push now depends on how many doses the health department receives from the Illinois Department of Public Health. Local officials lobbied the state for 20,000 doses last month, and received 4,000 doses last week after State Rep. Keith Wheeler, R-Oswego, contacted state health officials, County Board Chairman Scott Gryder said.

“They’ve been very happy with what they’ve seen come out of here,” Gryder said of state officials, adding that counties are receiving shipments based on how quickly they can administer them. “[The mass vaccination events] give us a little bit of a dry-run. We want to make Kendall County an example for the state of Illinois to see how this can be done.”

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"It feels great to be able to have the teachers vaccinated," volunteer Karen Metzdorf (left) said at a mass vaccination event Feb. 7 at Yorkville High School. "It feels wonderful." (Shea Lazansky)