Story by Airman 1st Class Melanie L. Nolen
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After one of the first rains of the fall season, an eager mix of front line workers prepared for a day of providing free flu shots to the residents of Sacramento County. The Sleep Train Arena parking lot was provided by the Sacramento Kings as a complimentary location to Sacramento County Public Health for a free drive-thru flu shot clinic for area residents. The mix of front line workers included members of the California National Guardโs Joint Task Force 201 Mercy, Sacramento County Public Health staff and volunteers from the Sacramento Medical Reserve Corps. Slamson the Lion, the Sacramento Kings’s official mascot, lent a hand by bringing more positive energy to the event and helping with traffic control during the free flu shot clinic. โThe more people in our community who are vaccinated for the flu, the fewer who will be hospitalized or sadly die from this preventable illness,โ said Sacramento County Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye in an article on Sacramento Countyโs website. โThis year, it is more important than ever to get the flu vaccination to reduce your risk from flu but also to help conserve potentially scarce health care resources with COVID-19 continuing to spread in our community.โ
The California National Guardโs Collection, Transportation and Analysis Team (CTAT) Cal Expo team, part of Cal Guard’s Joint Task Force 201 Mercy, has been assisting Sacramento County Public Health with COVID-19 testing since late April. Led by Lt. Col. Miguel A. Jimenez, from the Cal Guardโs 146th Airlift Wing’s Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, the CTAT Cal Expo team brought all they had learned from their time at Cal Expo by providing administrative support, traffic control and safety logistics to the drive-thru flu clinic. โI think this builds on our [Cal Guard] partnership with the drive-thru COVID-19 testing site at Cal Expo,โ said Nick Mori, a special projects program planner with Sacramento County Public Health. โWe were talking earlier about how this event almost ran itself today by bringing the Guard in with their experience of running the show with traffic at that site.”
The CTAT Cal Expo team is a mix of Airmen and Soldiers from Cal Guard units throughout the state of California. Many of them have been on mission since late April for the COVID-19 pandemic response. Though many are away from their families, they know they are making a difference in their communities. “We are working with so many different organizations here and the whole goal is just helping people; weโve been able to do that the whole time weโve been here,” said Tech. Sgt. Ty Young, a medical logistics specialist with the 146th AES who started working with the CTAT Cal Expo team in July. “It’s nice to see us all coming together for a common cause, especially in these hard times.โ The drive-thru flu shot clinic was also a way to see the logistics that would be needed in the future to distribute the COVID-19 vaccination once is has been developed and approved. “I thought this [event] would be a good opportunity for [the Guard] to come out and help,” said Hannah Aalborg, a medical counter measures coordinator with SCPH. “Then also thinking forward to transitioning to the [COVID-19] vaccine and what would be needed for that piece as well. This gives us kind of a general idea for utilization of partnering with the Guard in the future.โ
Whether they are behind the scenes or on the front lines, the Cal Guard is willing and able to assist the communities they live in.
