This weekend is the first time that New York state has gone through a mass immunization. The emergency response to the Hepatitis A scare is on a much smaller scale than what would be needed for a pandemic. County leaders say what happened this weekend is what people train for. As a pharmacist, Dennis Galluzzo's skills are coming in handy during Erie County's mass immunization. "We are used to help dispense the medications out."

Galluzzo was activated for duty since he is a member of Western New York's SMART Team. "SMART or Specialized Medical Assistance Response Team, are volunteers who come in during incidents like this and help us wherever we need to plug them in," said Danny Neaverth Jr., Erie County's Strategic National Stockpile Coordinator.

There's a lot of work to be done to vaccinate thousands of people in a short time frame. Neaverth explained, "We have about 150 people here and that's everything from the greeters as you come in the door, to the educators making sure you fill out the form properly, screeners, doctors, form evaluators, vaccinators... "

And that's just one piece of the puzzle. The county is coordinating with the state and the federal government to make sure there's enough supply of Hepatitis A vaccines and immune globulin (IG) shots. Also buses were brought in so people won't have to wait outside in the cold. Wait times for shots averaged under 2 hours and county leaders say all the training for this kind of event has paid off. Erie County Executive Chris Collins said, "We'll be, with the state, sitting down when this is all done and saying, what can we learn so that the next time we do even better."

Making adjustments for next time, in case the situation is even more serious, though hopefully there won't be a next time. Galluzzo said, "It was a very big learning experience because we need to know how exactly we're going to get the volunteers into a situation like this."

By the end of today, the county estimates that over 4,000 people will be vaccinated against Hepatitis A. They expected there will be a shorter line at the clinic tomorrow, which is open from 12noon to 8pm at ECC's North Campus in Williamsville.

For more information on volunteering with the SMART team, you can log onto: www.wnysmart.org