Don\u2019t make the mistake of thinking it is too late to get your flu shot. No one enjoys getting sick, especially with the flu! According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), influenza (the flu) is a serious disease that can lead to hospitalization and sometimes death. Every flu season is different. Influenza infection can affect people differently. Even healthy people can get very sick from the flu and spread it to others.<\/p>\n
Right now flu viruses are spreading at higher rates in the U.S.. An annual seasonal flu vaccine (either the flu shot or the nasal spray flu vaccine) is the best way to reduce the chance that you will get the flu and spread it to others. If more people get vaccinated against the flu, it is less likely that flu will spread through the community.<\/p>\n
If you are hesitant to get your flu vaccine, here are some key points to remember:<\/p>\n
\u2022 While there are many different flu viruses, a flu vaccine protects against the three most common viruses.
\n\u2022 Everyone 6 months of age and older should get a flu vaccine as soon as the current season\u2019s vaccines are available.
\n\u2022 Children younger than 6 months are at high risk for serious flu illness, but they are too young to be vaccinated. People who care for them should be vaccinated instead.
\n\u2022 People at high risk of serious flu complications include young children, pregnant women, people with chronic health conditions such as asthma, diabetes or heart and lung disease and people 65 years and older.
\n\u2022 Vaccination of high-risk people is especially important to decrease their risk of severe flu illness.
\n\u2022 Vaccination also is important for health care workers and other people who live with or care for high-risk people to keep from spreading flu to high-risk people.<\/p>\n
Keep in mind that the CDC recommends a yearly flu vaccine as the first and most important step in protecting against flu viruses.<\/p>\n
Do yourself a favor and take the time to get a flu vaccine! The flu vaccination can greatly lower your chances of getting the flu.<\/p>\n
Health New England covers the flu vaccination for all of our members with a $0 copay with an in plan provider. If an in plan provider charges you out of pocket for any reason, simply mail in your proof of payment and the copy of the bill, and Health New England will reimburse you 100%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Don\u2019t make the mistake of thinking it is too late to get your flu shot. No one enjoys getting sick, especially with the flu! According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), influenza (the flu) is a serious disease that can lead to hospitalization and sometimes death. Every flu season is different. Influenza […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":3172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[171,172,173,174,247],"class_list":["post-3171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flu-awareness","tag-flu-prevention","tag-flu-season","tag-flu-shot","tag-flu-vaccination","tag-wellness-prevention"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/flu-shot-graphic-268x300.jpg?fit=268%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6ZZGa-P9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3171"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3414,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3171\/revisions\/3414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}