A line of people spilled out of the Straight Memorial Room onto Ho Plaza, took a bend outside the Cornell Store and stretched all the way to McGraw Tower Friday. The line could be spotted for the entire day, when about 2,000 people received their seasonal flu shot.

Gannett Health Service’s vaccination clinic, the first opportunity for many Cornellians to receive a flu shot this semester, was the largest clinic Gannett had ever held, according to Sharon Dittman, associate director of community relations at Gannett.

However, uncertainly over the arrival of additional vaccine may delay future clinics.

About 4,000 doses of vaccine were on hand for Friday’s clinic. Cornell is expecting the delivery of 8,000 more doses this season, but it is uncertain when exactly they will arrive as manufacturers are rushing to produce the new H1N1 vaccine, according to Dittman. If additional vaccines do not arrive in time, the next clinic — scheduled to take place in the College of Veterinary Medicine on Oct. 7 — may be delayed.

“We don’t know yet if we’re going to have all the vaccines we want,” Dittman said.

Gannett will decide in about a week whether to hold the Veterinary School clinic on its scheduled date or to delay it until more supplies arrive, she said.

“Gannett is unlikely to have significant advanced notice regarding the amounts, dates, or frequency of deliveries of vaccine to Cornell,” Dittman said.

The regular flu season, however, does not usually begin until January, so students still have plenty of time to be vaccinated, she added.

Prior to Friday, the largest flu clinic Gannett had ever held distributed vaccines to about 700 people, Dittman said. That record was eclipsed by the clinic on Friday, which vaccinated 2,000 people.

“We have never done a day-long clinic like this,” Dittman said. “This was definitely a different experience for us.”

We all want a shot: Hundreds of people wait for a seasonal flu vaccine on Ho Plaza last Friday.

Some students, faculty and staff waited for up to an hour to receive their free vaccine, which protects against seasonal flu but not the H1N1 strain that recently spread through campus.

Some students began lining up even before the clinic opened at 9 a.m. Anne Walluk, a nursing manager at Gannett, said that about 25 people were already in line when she arrived at 8:15 a.m.

Even so, the wait did not seem to upset those who came for a vaccine.

“They’ve all been really happy,” Walluk said.

Scott Crespo ‘11 said he decided to wait in line for the clinic on Friday because he wanted to be vaccinated before becoming overwhelmed by exams and other work.

“I figured, the sooner the better,” Crespo said.

The large size of the clinic meant that more nurses and staff were needed than in a normal clinic.

At one of Gannett’s typical flu clinics, four nurses administer the vaccines, Walluk said. At Friday’s clinic, as many as eight nurses were working at the same time. Each nurse also administered more vaccines than would normally be distributed by an entire clinic, according to Walluk.

In addition to the extra nurses, 10 volunteers worked to hand out paperwork and clipboards, while four administrative assistants handled forms and payments, Walluk said.

The nurses and staff worked hard to keep things moving, “but the people who really deserve the credit are all those who came and patiently waited in line and walked away with the protection a flu vaccine gives to them and to the community,” Dittman said.

“The more people who choose to get vaccinated, the safer we all [will be],” she added.