Travelers inside an airport are part of a captive audience and one company is hoping to take advantage of that by selling vaccinations for communicable diseases.
Inside San Diego airport, you can now get a flu shot or a pertussis vaccination while you wait for your flight.
Whooping cough has been making headlines throughout the state recently. There have been 554 cases reported in the county so far this year, nearly four times the number of last year's total.
Nine infants have died in the state, including one announced just Thursday here in San Diego.
It’s really the adults that are carriers said Jeffrey Sternberg, President of Pacific Medical, the company that’s selling the vaccines.
“When you hear a child making that classic whooping sound and trying to get air and knowing that they can’t eat; knowing that they can’t get the oxygen in their little lungs they have to work so much harder than ours, we hope that will be compelling enough,” he said.
“At least get yourself vaccinated if you’re going to be in contact with any infants or young kids,” he said.
The vaccines will be available to the general public, ticketed passengers and employees for a fee.
Passengers can pay $22.50 for a flu shot and $55-$60 for whooping cough, Sternberg said. The company doesn’t accept insurance but they will provide you with a receipt that will act as proof of your immunization as well as serve to file a claim with your insurance company.
The service will be offered daily at six pre-security and post-security locations in Terminals one and two and is expected to continue through early next year.
