Cundari, Jones clash on delivery of H1N1 vaccine

One of the aspects of Gerry Jones' long service on the Kane County Board that he takes the most pride in is serving as chairman of the Public Health Committee. But it's in that role that Lorena Cundari believes Jones most showed an inability to lead.

Cundari, Jones' Democratic challenger in the District 7 Feb. 2 primary, said Kane County's delivery of the initial rounds of the H1N1 vaccine was "a mess."

"It was a free-for-all," Cundari said. "It was a catastrophe. If a pandemic were to break out tomorrow, we're not prepared. People who should've got those vaccines could not get them. Nobody was informed other than somebody told somebody else. The people that were in charge of that did not transmit the message in a way that it should've been done. And then people started panicking because they are talking about life and death. There needed to be organization. There wasn't."

Jones said the county's delivery of the vaccines was actually one of the greatest successes in the past year. Any problems were because of a shortage in the quantity of the vaccine that was made available by the federal government, not the delivery of the supply on hand by the county.

"We did a good job," Jones said. "We got out the vaccine that was available into the public as quick as we could. And we tried to audit the situation as best we could to get the vaccine out to those most at risk. There were lines, but how do you serve that many people without lines? Are you supposed to have a public health nurse for every citizen in the county? People stood in line patiently because they knew the value of having their kids and pregnant women receive the vaccine. It was well coordinated."