CHICK-FIL-A MANAGER SOLVES SOUTH CAROLINA COVID VACCINE DRIVE-THRU BACKLOG
OREGON LIVE
If there is anyone who is an expert at the drive-thru experience, it is a fast-food restaurant manager.
CNN reports that when a drive-thru COVID-19 vaccine clinic in South Carolina got backed up, the mayor called in an expert - the manager of the local Chick-fil-A restaurant.
According to CNN, the clinic opened on Jan. 22 but quickly became overwhelmed causing the computer system handling registrations to go down.
The mayor, Will Haynie told CNN, he immediately thought of Jerry Walkowiak, the manager of a nearby Chick-fil-A.
“When I heard about it, I called Jerry and asked if he would come help us out,” Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie told CNN. “After he looked it over, he said, ‘There’s your problem right there. It’s backed up because you have one person checking people in.’ Then he showed us how to do it right.”
Walkowiak quickly organized more volunteers and reduced the hours-long wait to just 15 minutes.
The clinic gave the vaccine to 1,000 people that day, CNN reported. When those people return on Feb. 12 for their second dose, Walkowiak said he will be there.
Walkowiak told WCBD that, “We saw a little hiccup in their drive-thru system, and we needed some more people, so we gathered some of the wonderful Rotary volunteers and went down there and just was able to expedite the registration part.”
Officials have been turning to large-event organizers and fast food managers to help tackle large events such as mass testing and vaccination sites.
According to The Associated Press, the state of Massachusetts has asked the director of the Boston Marathon, Dave McGillivray, “to run mass vaccination operations at Gillette Stadium and Fenway Park.
Idled at his day job by the pandemic, he’s part of an emerging group of event organizers and other unconventional logistics experts who are using their skills to help the nation vaccinate as many people against COVID-19 as possible.”
AP reported, “‘It’s amazing how our event management skillset can be applied to running a massive vaccination site,’ said McGillivray, who has been directing the marathon for more than three decades.
The push for creative workarounds comes as virus cases surge nationwide, lines grow at testing and vaccination sites and tempers flare as government websites crash beneath the digital weight of millions desperately seeking appointments.”
AP reported that Starbucks and Amazon were providing support to vaccination operations in Washington state. In California, Disneyland is hosting a mass vaccination effort, as is Six Flags Magic Mountain, about 60 miles north.