City of Lubbock Nails COVID-19 Vaccinations

I don't believe I've ever been to anything as well thought out and organized as the City of Lubbock's vaccination experience.

I'm trying to find fault with my vaccination experience on Thursday and I just can't. Some part of me says, "maybe you're just so relieved to get it done that you're going easy on them," but I can't think of anything I'd do better.

Okay, maybe somebody should open the doors of the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center for ya, but when you get to the front we were greeted by two of Lubbock's finest who asked us if we had an appointment (and they seemed to be asking casually more than anything else).

When you get through the front, you're greeted and asked to look into something that looks like a cross between an iPhone and an iPad. You can see yourself, but what it actually does is take your temperature about 10 times faster than a temperature gun. Once you pass, you follow the blue lines to the main floor of the Civic Center. There are people to help you along the way, too.

Once you enter the main floor of the Civic Center, you have to grab a little paperwork and a pen that's been freshly disinfected. Then, you go to a table, fill out your stuff and queue up in a line that's all lined out with stanchions and a plastic chain. Near the end of this line, which took less than two minutes to get to the front of, you drop your pen off (for disinfecting) and an organizer holds you for the next available table.

I wondered who was actually giving the shots, and it looks like, at least on that day, that it was Lubbock EMTs. You sit down and you get the tiniest, most painless shot I've ever had in my life (seriously, way less than even a pinprick). You then get a few instructions and a card saying you've received your dose. You move into a big room full of chairs that are spaced apart where you have to wait 15 minutes before you go. They even have a giant clock displaying the time so you can watch your seconds tick down.

On the way out, you drop off your paperwork (yes, there are stickers and suckers), and that's it. This entire experience was less hassle than picking up a hamburger on the way home. It was perfect and a model for the way everything should be thought out and done. Five stars, two thumbs up.

I would also like to mention that the vaccination needles/syringes don't look like traditional syringes, so if you have a fear of those, don't worry about it. These guys palm these things and get it done like it's a magic trick.

Be a good human and make plans to get vaccinated -- if not for yourself, for the people who can't.