Short-lived plan for flu vaccine at Houston polling places dropped

The Houston Chronicle has been on top of the mild controversy in Houston this week surrounding the "Vote and Vax" program that would have administered free flu vaccinations at polling places on election day. Here's the lead from yesterday's Chronicle...

"Voting is good. Flu shots are good. But mix them together in the middle of a hard-fought election season and politics takes over.

Mayor Bill White ordered a halt Wednesday to the city health department's privately funded drive to offer flu vaccinations at early voting sites in predominantly Hispanic and black neighborhoods, amid conservative criticism that the effort would boost Democratic turnout."

Regardless of the motivation for the ill-fated program, the good news, as this story in today's Chronicle reports, is that the 1,600 free vaccine doses have been donated to clinics and churches in low-income areas.

This AP story courtesy of the New York Times explains that the "Vote and Vax" program is part of a $320,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for similar initiatives in 25 American cities.