November 6, 2009

From Robin Chapell, Health Director

The Walpole Health Department will be holding our first public H1N1 vaccine clinic at the Walpole High School Cafeteria on Saturday, November 14, 2009 from 8:30 to 10:30 A.M. This clinic will only be for Kindergarten and First Grade Children who live in Walpole and for Pregnant Women. We only have a very limited supply for now and want to start distributing what we have to protect as many people as we can. Kindergarten and First grade children will need two doses of the vaccine, so it is important that we start with them. We plan on holding many more clinics as we get the vaccine, so other groups of people will have a chance of getting the H1N1 vaccine later on if they choose to.

We have been getting calls and inquiries from many residents wanting to know if their child or they themselves can be included in this clinic. There are a lot of compelling reasons why everyone that called should be vaccinated and it is the hope of this Health Department to eventually accommodate everyone. We could have held off on any clinic until we had sufficient doses but then we would not be protecting as many people that we can as soon as we can. We decided to start somewhere. About 10% of the population fall into the first high risk groups. Unfortunately we do not yet have anywhere near that number of vaccines to dispense. To keep our clinics running smoothly and civil, we respectfully ask that everyone please respect the target groups we set for each clinic.

If you have any questions, please call the Health Department at 508-660-7321. Thank you.