Google site helps users find a flu shot

By W.J. Hennigan

Nov. 13, 2009 12 AM PT

Feel a fever coming on?

Now that flu season is in full swing, people are scrambling for a vaccine. And the rush is even more hectic because of the H1N1 scare.

To help with the high demand for vaccines, Google Inc. has launched a flu shot finder at www.google.com/flushot. It provides users with the locations of clinics that provide seasonal and H1N1 vaccines.

The site works like Google Maps. Enter a ZIP Code or the name of a city, and the closest sites will pop up. Clinics offering H1N1 shots are blue. Those offering seasonal shots are red. And those providing both are half red and half blue.

Google collaborated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the Department of Health and Human Services. The locater eventually will be linked on www.flu.gov and the American Lung Assn. website.

But be aware that many locations shown on the site may be out of stock, Google said. So make sure you call ahead.

william.hennigan@latimes.com

Science & Medicine Technology and the Internet

W.J. Hennigan

W.J. Hennigan covered the Pentagon and national security issues from Washington, D.C., before leaving the Los Angeles Times bureau in November 2017. While there, he reported on war, counter-terrorism, and the lives of American service members from more than two dozen countries and previously covered the aerospace and defense industry from Los Angeles. Hennigan earned awards from the National Press Club, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, and was a contributor to the Los Angeles Times coverage of the terror attacks in San Bernardino that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2016.

Google site helps users find a flu shot

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