Health Department workers take to the streets to give leftover vaccines

At the end of a near 600-dose COVID-19 vaccine clinic Wednesday, the Park County Health Department found they had nine doses left over.

After efforts calling around yielded only one more vaccine recipient, according to Health Department employee Alexis Van Pernis, the department took to the streets in downtown Livingston, with the doses and supplies in what basically amounted to a tackle box, in search of people yet to be vaccinated.

“It was a funny way to end the day,” Van Pernis said.

The Health Department went in and out of businesses downtown and talked to people on the street. Everyone who the department employees encountered downtown was nice, Van Pernis said. So nice, in fact, that the biggest issue they ran into was most people they talked to had already been vaccinated.

“It was really cool to see how many people had been vaccinated,” Van Pernis said, “although I guess not when you’re trying to distribute vaccines.”

All Montanans 16 and up are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, with first-dose clinics in Livingston generally held Thursdays and second-dose clinics generally held Wednesdays.

“It’s cool to see the effects of your work in the real world,” Van Pernis said.