Flu Shots

Who needs to get a flu shot?  When should you get it?

Nowadays, flu shots have been felt to provide protection against respiratory flu (not stomach flu) for at least 3 months.  Because the flu season has traditionally peaked in January, most authorities have recommended that flu shots be given about 2-3 months ahead of this projected time...like in late October and early November.   There's no effective way of knowing whether any specific person's immunity is lasting longer than that 3 months, and the option of a second innocculation has been expensive  and impractical, on a national scale.

However, at the same time, Public Health Officials have focused efforts on achieving as close to 100% as possible, in vaccinating the public.  Therefore, information is passed to the mass media, to be disseminated to the general public via TV, radio, websites, and newspapers/magazines.   Wanting to get a head start on November in order to spread out the demand for shots, the PR efforts have recently begun in September.  Hence you see even the grocery stores advertising flu shots.    Moreover, on rare occasions, major supplies of the vaccine have been pulled from the market, resulting in shortages that put many people at risk.

Nowadays, the Public Health officials pretty much want everybody to take flu shots, unless they're allergic to them or to eggs.  The most important subgroups are those with heart and lung disease or frail conditions that might place survival in jeopardy, if infected with a bad case of the flu.   Healthy workers who have contact with large numbers of people, are also targeted for shots, because if they get the flu, they could pass it on to many customers, patients, students, etc.

At Kirkpatrick Family Care, our goal is to protect as many people as possible, from a nasty illness that can cause lost work time for healthy patients, and hospitalization for those who have chronic illnesses (heart and lung conditions or very advanced age). 

Hard to get in during the day?  Flu shots can also be administered during our extended hours on weekends and up until 8 p.m. during the week.

Now, should the flu season start earlier than January, we can always vaccinate early and provide anti-viral pills for the couple weeks it takes for the shot to take effect.  Contact us with questions, please.

Rich Kirkpatrick, MD, FACP