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A local health department is working to make sure your family is protected in case of a pandemic or disaster.

Marion County Emergency Management Director John Hark and nurses with the county's Health Department have these boxes of supplies called go-kits ready at any hour to respond to a possible pandemic situation.

It contains everything a nurse would need to begin treating patients.

Hark says a pandemic is very different from an epidemic.

An influenza epidemic is what we see every year when the flu spreads through a community.

A pandemic is even more widespread and would make it necessary for nurses to vaccinate an entire county in 72 hours according to the CDC.

With 28 thousand residents in Marion County, nurses would have to vaccinate about 288 people every hour.

That's why the county is planning it's third drive through flu clinic next week...to practice the skills they'll need in a pandemic.

Hark said, "It gives us the opportunity to be more efficient. It gives us the opportunity to see if we are going to have a problem, we make that mistake now when we're having an exercise. That's the simple side of things. More seriously, it's flu season, get a flu shot."

By the way, Hark says you cannot get the flu from a flu shot, so there is no excuse not to get one.

The Marion County drive thru flu clinic is set for this Wednesday, October 29 from 3p.m. to 7p.m. in the Hannibal LaGrange College Roland Fine Arts Center parking lot. Shots are $20 dollars and can also be billed to medicare and medicaid.

Another drive through clinic is this Sunday from 11a.m. to 2p.m. at John Wood Community College.  The Adams County Health Department is offering flu shots for $25.