Every fall semester at Quinnipiac University, hundreds of students line up in the student center for their free seasonal flu shot. But this year, flu season will intertwine with COVID-19, which may raise the difficulty of getting a flu shot, and the anxiety for anyone with flu-like symptoms.
Whether students and faculty are breathing down each other’s necks in line waiting for their flu shot or deciding not to get one at all, one thing is for sure, both of those things can’t happen.
Many Quinnipiac students and faculty rely on the university for their seasonal flu shots. Not giving the Quinnipiac community an option for a flu vaccine this year can be dangerous. But Quinnipiac is coming up with a plan to ensure all students and faculty can receive their yearly flu shot. Quinnipiac has been testing for COVID-19, with the process detailed here.
“It is my understanding the flu clinics this year are being outsourced to CVS and are in the process of being arranged. It is unclear about the involvement of any nursing students in the flu clinics at this time.” Teresa Twomey, an assistant professor in nursing at Quinnipiac University and the director of the Global Nursing Experience said. “In the previous years the Student Health Center has arranged the flu clinics for the University and senior nursing students are able to work with nursing faculty to administer vaccinations.”
When we asked CVS about outsourcing the university’s flu vaccine this year, they referred all questions to Quinnipiac.
There have been students in the past who have decided against getting a flu shot, on or off-campus. Kaitlyn Tomich, 21, a Quinnipiac biomedical sciences major, doesn’t always get her flu shot, but this year she will.
“Hopefully it will prevent me from getting the flu so if I do start to feel sick I know I probably need to do something more about it,” Tomich, who is from Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, said.
The flu is spread similar to COVID-19, primarily through droplets, and symptoms for both illnesses are similar as well. If someone has flu-like symptoms, it will be hard to distinguish what infection they have.
Dr. Saad B. Omer, the director of the Yale Institute for Global Health and professor of medicine (infectious diseases) says that it is imperative that everyone gets their flu shot this year, whether or not you’ve been vaccinated for influenza in the past.
“The most straightforward thing you can do is get vaccinated against influenza because the symptoms have an overlap,” Omer said. “Some social distancing measures that are likely to work for COVID may be helpful in reducing the influenza season as well but we should not rely 100% on that. The key to dealing with this is through vaccination.”
Dr. Omer said the rates of influenza in the Southern Hemisphere were low this year, likely because of social distancing measures that have been put in place because of COVID. However, Omer said even if the Northern Hemisphere’s flu season is milder, there will be value in getting a flu shot this year.
Even if the vaccine isn’t being performed on campus, there are still plenty of accessible options to get a flu shot, such as pharmacies and even grocery stores affiliated with pharmacies, Dr. Omer said.
With Quinnipiac outsourcing their flu vaccine to CVS this year, people will still have the opportunity to get vaccinated for free.
“I think it’s a nice alternative since the original rumor was that they might be totally canceling it. It’s great that they can still provide an option because for some people that’s their only option,” Tomich said. “Personally I will still be using my own doctor since I already have an appointment and I’m more comfortable doing it that way.”
However, even if people get their flu shot, Twomey stresses the importance of continuing to slow the spread of COVID-19, which in turn will help slow the spread of influenza.
“With wearing masks -flu is primarily spread through droplet- good handwashing and social distancing, these things will certainly decrease the spread of many germs,” Twomey said. “But for those people that are not practicing these three things, it makes it difficult to control the spread of COVID and the flu.”