Something good just happened to health care.
 

Ok, so we're all up in arms about National Socialism, the end of western civilization as we know it, and whatnot. But today, I finally got that flu shot that I'd not gotten around to, while inside the Atlanta airport, Concourse A.

The AeroClinic and The AmeriClinic

What an amazingly cool idea! I'm being totally serious. They've picked the one location where pretty much the whole high risk adult section of the population can be found, and set up shop in it giving flu vaccinations. Pretty sure the Fed didn't have any part of it, either. :D


On a sad note, it seems that with the remodeling complete, they've closed off the small ancillary tunnel which joins concourses B and C separate from the main tunnel. It was a mostly disused remnant from the days before the main tunnel (with the trains) was extended, and truthfully, served almost no useful purpose whatsoever.

Except for one.

At the end of that tunnel, behind the entrance and beside the service elevator, was a tiny room which usually had one folding metal chair in it. That was the one place in the whole airport where non Crown Room members could sit down, read a book, and enjoy total peace and quiet.

And it's gone.

i've been pondering swine/flu shots for the first time in my life... still undecided.

also

sometime this year, the Dulles AeroTrain will be complete and the stupid moonrover peoplemover things will go burn in hell.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3325/...4efd63b1f3.jpg

What does Hartsfield not have? Of course, most of what they do have you can't find in that crazy mess of corridors. I don't know if I would trust a doc in the box in ATL airport though. Might be perfectly safe, but I wouldn't personally do it. Then again I don't do shots or go to a regular doctor anyway. I'm also sure the Feds didn't have anything to do with it. They wouldn't have placed one that logically, and it would have cost enough that it would have been in the news.

Gah, I am forced to get a flu shot every year and that's the only time I get sick ever, the couple of days after the shot. Damn people and their weakened immune systems.

Attachment 202558

See, thats why I avoid them. After the one time I got a shot when I was maybe 10 and got sick that same week, and after hearing similar stories, why even bother. Of course that is impossible according to people on another forum. I have no proof that the shot has anything to do with it, its a dead virus!!! Hell of a coincidence in all of these cases.

Well, my sister back in FL is on anti-rejection meds which compromise the immune system, so it's sort of par for the course for our family. And me in particular, since I fly a lot. Everyone else got 'em a few weeks ago while I was out of town, and I hadn't gotten around to it yet. I should have gotten one at the K-Mart in Penn Station a few weeks ago when I was going through there, but I had a burrito getting cold in my backpack and was kind of in a hurry to get back to the hotel and eat it. :D



No shit? You know, as much as I detest those things, they are actually kind of a cool experience that makes flying through Dulles unique.

Are they going to (or have they already) ditched 'em for plane-to-gate transport?

So, now that Concourse C is shut down at CVG, IAH (terminal A) is the only place left I can think of with this sort of setup.



Once the Lexus dealership opens, I do believe that ATL will pretty much have it all.

Why does everyone say this? ATL is one of the most logically arranged airports I have ever seen! There's one central tunnel, and six concourses which branch off of it, each of them a straight line. Trains run about two minutes apart. Food service is clustered around the central part of each concourse, so if you want to run from D to A to grab a quick bite between flights, you don't have to go very far. There's a smoking lounge or two in every single concourse (except maybe E- haven't been down that one in a while.) What's more, you can get from any gate in the whole airport to any other gate (even crossing from one carrier to another) without having to exit the sterile area and go back through security. Anybody who has missed a connection at LAX or DFW will appreciate that.

And don't get me started on TPA...


Oh, which sort of peripherally reminds me... Anybody familiar with the "hidden corridor" at IAH? It's sort of like the one at CVG (connecting B-C, if I recall correctly) except that right in the middle is a huge steel door that automatically closes from time to time. Damn odd, and quite annoying if you happen to be on the wrong side of it when it snaps shut.

I like going through ATL too, it's too damn easy. One main hall and offshoots arranged A-F!

I think its more just the size for me. If you go the wrong concourse, it takes 10 minutes to walk/ride/stand back to where you took the wrong turn. I gotta say ATL is one place I don't mind a delay, plenty of stuff to do while you wait. I enjoyed LGA when I was there. Had a slight delay so I went and watched a football game on a big screen and had a few beers and some food before my flight back to ATL. I had a restful flight back with an ever so slight buzz. :giggle:

Of course I have only been in ATL airport maybe 4 times, so I'm not that experienced there, and the time between visits is so long it might as well be my first time every time.

I think having flu shots in the airport give a false sense of security. People should realize that antibodies take time to develop after a flu shot and people still need to play a defensive role. Is this information given out?

If I could have it my way, everyone would be wearing surgical masks.

i'm afraid of needles and pass out so no thanks for me, plus i rarely get sick, last time i remeber actually being sick was 1999

Haha, what? That is the number one side effect from flu shots, and shots for other diseases for that matter.
But, you don't get sick from the dead virus, the response you get is your immune system revving up. A fever is a bodily reaction, not something the pathogen causes by ... eh... being very hot ;)

Most of the feeling of illness is actually the body mobilizing towards the threat.

Yesterday during some news coverage of the incident where one was driven into the wing of a taxiing airplane, I heard a Dulles spokesperson refer to the peoplemovers as "mobile lounges." I about shat myself. It's not like they're serving cocktails and hors d'oeuvres on those things. I really do not find them at all lounge-like.

aw but I have found memories of those when I was only like 4 years old...

ha, they are so inefficient it's not even funny.

"Mobile Lounge" Is in fact the correct term for them.

Really it should be "bitchy personal space invasion room with wheels"

The best part is the little countdown clock above the door as you board them... like you'll actually blast off for the moon!

The flu vaccination at the airports is cool, but traveling and taking the shot would be horrible for me; I always get pretty sick the day after I get the shot.

Then it's still another few days before you're even immune...

I got dragged (drug..?) across base while off-duty today to get my damn H1N1 shot at 1900 because active duty military was priority and they just got in today. Great now my 24 hour sleepless shift tomorrow I'm going to be fucking sick, FML, hopefully it won't set in until the following day so I'm not in total misery.

i love that moonrover thingy :( I have so many memories of riding it.

Honestly, I wasn't looking for that particular bit of info when I read the paperwork. But I suspect you'd have to be an idiot not to understand the fundamental concepts.

Still, if you're like me, it's a pretty handy thing. I'm on a plane every week or so on average, always in a different place, working in some of the less sanitary conditions to be found in North America (ever been inside a radio studio?) and frankly am just too damn lazy to go out of my way to make a trip to the local clinic. So hey, if I've got an hour to kill between flights and it's right there in the concourse, what the hell more could you ask for?


I've heard that some Asian countries have a rather ingenious detection system in place. As you walk down the long hallway towards customs / immigration, there are a couple of cameras pointed at you. Except they're not optical, they're thermal. Anybody whose body registers more than a couple degrees above normal gets culled from the herd immediately.



They've got these groovy new things called signs. They tell you where you are, and have arrows showing you which way to go to get where you need to be. In the Big Tunnel, they even tell you how many feet / meters you are from the various portals. Pretty high-tech stuff. :D



Interestingly, I've never had this problem. Right now we're at about I+30 hours, and no symptoms. And since I got the intra-nasal version (which uses live viruses that have been given a beatdown) I technically have the flu right now.



I actually never realized that they used 'em for inter-terminal transport, only for servicing aircraft that couldn't squeeze into a gate.

Joe >> side effects are never mandatory, only more or less common.

I'm sure it's probably better for national flights but going international at ATL is a horrible experience. Security is horrible and customs are rude and unnecessarily prejudice, if you have unusual stamps or a funny name, you're fucked.