ORLANDO, Fla. – News 6 and Centra Care are partnering once again to offer free flu shots to the Central Florida community. The final event is Thursday.
“This year we have a quadrivalent vaccine,” said Dr. Scott Brady, senior vice president for ambulatory services for AdventHealth. “It’ll protect you from four strains. We are predicting that it’ll come a little earlier, meaning what? Meaning probably November-ish, December-ish into January, so now is the time to get the flu shot.”
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With flu season around the corner, physicians want to address the challenges and common misconceptions that come with it.
Brady told News 6 that the most common question during flu season is whether the vaccine shot will develop the virus in someone.
“Some people, a very small percentage of people, when they get the flu shot, their body will say, ‘Hey, something new is here.’ You begin to mount up an immune response and you might feel a little achy for a few hours, maybe even an evening. A couple of Tylenol will help that, but you won’t catch the flu from that,” he said.
Physicians with AdventHealth Centra Care said last year, the flu season wasn’t too active, but they do believe this year it will hit much stronger.
How do they know? They took a look at what happened in the Southern Hemisphere.
“We see this year that Australia, which is really specific for what we usually see, got the influenza early and strong,” Brady said. “We are predicting that it’ll come a little earlier. Meaning what? Meaning probably November-ish, December-ish into January. So now is the time to get the flu shot.”
This will be the 20th year that Centra Care has offered this free flu vaccine campaign to the community.
Centra Care will host the last event Thursday at this location:
- New Horizon West Centra Care -- Thursday, Oct. 13, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
“Depending on the person’s health history and their immune status it can be deadly,” said Kim Graham, director of nursing with AdventHealth Centra Care. “So we have people that get pneumonia from the flu, other complications from the flu, so it’s always important especially if your immune system is compromised.”
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