Vaccine donation

Regardless of what paper you read or news program you watch, the stories are the same: America has a shortage of the flu vaccine.

Word of flu-shot clinics brings people out in droves, lining sidewalks and waiting for hours for only a few hundred vaccinations. Health officials from across the globe have met to discuss a possible flu pandemic and its repercussions.

Until more vaccines can be manufactured, the best solution is to limit your exposure to people with flu and cold symptoms and to wash your hands to prevent the spread of germs.

Employees at one Cape Girardeau company went a bit further by donating their supply of the flu vaccine to the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Department.

More than 400 doses of flu vaccine donated by Procter & Gamble Paper Products have been carefully rationed by the county health department.

The doses were dispensed according to the department's disaster plan, which says law enforcement officers, firefighters and other first responders should receive the first inoculations.

But many emergency workers chose not to be immunized because of the vaccine shortage. About 200 of the county's 430 emergency personnel were given the vaccine, which allowed the remainder of the vaccine to be used in a local emergency room.

Now the health department is back where it started: without enough vaccines to meet the demand. County health workers say they don't expect any more vaccine to become available until January.

Procter & Gamble employees were generous with their donation and should be recognized for their community spirit.