Drive-through vaccination centers are popular

CHAMPAIGN -- For many people getting vaccinated against the swine flu in the Champaign area, the process has been pretty much like ordering fast food from a drive-through.

Instead of standing in line five or six hours to get the H1N1 vaccine as many people have at clinics in Chicago and suburban Cook County, the process in Champaign takes 45 minutes or less and no one has to get out of the car.

The drive-through flu clinics run by the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District have been so successful that officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta are holding them up as a model.

The first H1N1 drive-through on Nov. 21 drew 450 people the first hour, compared with 300 the entire day at a typical seasonal flu clinic.