Watkins begins month of walk-in flu shot clinics
Watkins Health Services kicked off its month of walk-in flu vaccination clinics with a clinic at Daisy Hill Commons on Oct. 3.
Watkins conducts the off-site clinics every year with the goal of curbing flu season as much as possible, said Patty Quinlan, clinical program coordinator at Watkins. Two-hour clinics will take place every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in October, as well as on Nov. 1, mostly from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Students should be sure to bring their health insurance cards with them to be billed correctly and ensure that they can get the vaccine. Shots are $40 each, but most insurance policies fully cover the vaccine, Quinlan said.
“It’d be really nice to get that before you leave for Thanksgiving or your winter break, especially if you’re going to be around the elderly family members or little babies,” Quinlan said.
Dr. Graig Nickel, the medical director at Watkins Health Services, said, referencing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that the vaccine is believed to reduce the risk of getting sick with the flu by 40%-60% across the population.
This year’s flu vaccine, Quinlan said, targets four different influenza viruses. Influenza A and B viruses affect humans most significantly, so flu vaccines primarily protect against two strains of influenza A and two strains of influenza B.
Quinlan said that, this flu season, the most common influenza strains going around seem to be well-matched in the flu vaccines being distributed.
“It doesn’t always exactly match, but this year it shows to,” Quinlan said.
Cait Phelan, a freshman majoring in human biology, gets a flu vaccine every year. This year, she got it at the Daisy Hill clinic.
“It took like five minutes,” Phelan said. “Everyone was super nice and helpful.”
Likewise, freshman mathematics major Jackson Vaughn described his experience at the clinic as “very smooth.”
“Honestly [the experience was] better than some that I have at home,” Vaughn said. “Having to go to the doctor and sign in and schedule appointments. Just coming in, it was very easy.”
Influenza does not yet appear to be widespread on campus, as Watkins has not recorded a positive case of influenza since the beginning of the semester, despite performing approximately 1,000 tests.