Last year was the first year in at least a decade that I didn’t get a flu shot. As it turns out, the flu shot was completely ineffective last year:
In a study of more than 3,600 Americans in seven states, the C.D.C. said in a report that the vaccine was only around 16 percent effective, a rate that it said was “not statistically significant.”
In any case, I’ve come to realize how big of an impact having flu shots available at work had. It was so easy to stroll downstairs and get the shot. They already had my insurance information (since my insurance was through work) and it would take about five minutes.
I don’t know what it’s like the rest of the country, but getting any kind of medical care around here has become impossible. Last year, I gave up on a flu shot after waiting an hour. J went in today to try and get a shot, and, after waiting 10 minutes to speak to someone and then getting sent to another line – just to ask a simple question! – he was told it was a 90 minute wait for a shot. He was able to get an appointment for this coming Friday; hopefully they’ll honor it and he won’t have to wait long.
Meanwhile, I made “well child” appointments for my girls, at which I was planning to get flu shots for them, but I couldn’t get them in until mid-January! My pediatrician no longer does standalone appointments for flu shots. I used to just run the girls in for a shot sometime in late fall, but that’s not an option any more. L, who seems to have inherited all of my anxious nature and then some, is freaking out at the thought of getting the shot at a pharmacy instead of the pediatrician.
Is this a Seattle thing or an everywhere thing? How do you get your kids flu shots? At your pediatrician or the pharmacy? Our local pediatrician basically has a monopoly on the Eastside. We’d have to drive a significant distance for more options, and I’m not sure it’d be any better elsewhere. This is a post-Covid thing. Thank goodness we had all of S’s medical stuff in the beforetimes.
Kids get flu mist a pediatrician. But our Pediatrician is a single physician practice. So it’s normally easy to get in. We get ours at the grocery pharmacy or CVS.
I’ve been getting my (adult) flu shot at the CVS for last few years. CVS seems to have my insurance info because they do my prescriptions too, but every time I’ve gone its been in and out quickly enough that I did not even notice the amount of time amount of time (same with covid boosters… last year I did both at the same time and yikes, I slept for like 36 hrs after). It was nice that my job at Houston did them in the work lobby, definitely incentivized me to get them at very beginning of flue season. My DC job also had them available at the main HQ building but, the CVS was on the same block as my office rather than a mile away.
I do my kids’ annual well checks in September, and the pediatrician usually has the flu shot by then, so they get it there. I used to get it at work, but for the past few years I’ve just gone to Walgreens and it’s never taken more than 15-20 minutes.
Sarah – I usually do that with Bri and Saoirse but was a slacker getting the appointment scheduled and now can’t get in till January. I always had to take Isla separately since her birthday is in February, but the last couple years it’s no longer an option. Anyway, I got us an appointment at Safeway so hopefully it won’t take too long.