Keeping Up With Your Immunizations

The fall season brings many traditions with it – from apple picking and pumpkin carving to tailgates and football games. To keep you and your loved ones feeling your best for all this season has to offer, Cameron encourages you to add one more tradition to your fall agenda: An annual visit to our immunization clinic.The fall season brings many traditions with it – from apple picking and pumpkin carving to tailgates and football games. To keep you and your loved ones feeling your best for all this season has to offer, Cameron encourages you to add one more tradition to your fall agenda: An annual visit to our immunization clinic.

Have you gotten your flu shot? Are you up to date on your COVID-19 vaccines? As new vaccinations are becoming available to the public, many questions have arisen surrounding the efficacy of vaccines in general. To answer some of these questions, Cameron’s Immunization Clinic explains how flu and COVID-19 vaccines work and why you should get them.

Importance of Flu Shots

Influenza, commonly referred to as the “flu,” is a very serious disease that can lead to health complications, hospitalization and sometimes death. There are multiple types of flu, and it can affect people differently. Getting the annual flu vaccine is the best way to protect yourself from flu viruses.Recent studies from the CDC show that the influenza vaccine reduces your risk of flu illness by 40%-60%. During the 2019-2020 flu season, influenza vaccination prevented an estimated 7.5 million illnesses, 105,000 hospitalizations, and 6,300 deaths associated with the flu.The flu vaccine’s ability to protect against the flu can vary from season to season, as the vaccine protects against certain variants better than others. It also depends on the person being vaccinated, their health conditions and their age. Despite these variations, getting your flu shot can protect you from a variety of illnesses in your community.

BIVALENT COVID-19 BOOSTER SHOT

To protect against COVID-19 virus strains, you should keep up with booster shots even if you have the first two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Booster shots add new layers of protection to your immune system as new COVID-19 variants develop. The most recently updated vaccine, the bivalent booster, helps protect against the original COVID-19 virus and Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

GETTING YOUR COVID-19 BOOSTER SHOT

The CDC recommends that people five years and older receive one bivalent mRNA booster dose after their two primary doses. Children five years and older are recommended to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent booster. The booster dose should be administered at least two months after your last primary dose. If you have already received a monovalent booster, you should wait two months and then get the bivalent booster. Be sure to bring your COVID-19 vaccination card to appointments you make to receive a COVID-19 booster.It is safe to get the flu shot at the same time as a COVID-19 vaccine or booster shot. 

To receive a COVID-19 booster, you can schedule an appointment at the following locations:

• Cameron Immunization Clinic in MOB Suite 303 by calling (260) 667-5622
• Steuben County Health Department Vaccine Clinic @ 317 S. Wayne St. Suite 1B by calling (866) 211-9966
• Most retail pharmacies (Meijer, Walgreens, Walmart, etc.)

Learn more about Cameron’s Immunization clinic by visiting https://www.cameronmch.com/services/immunization/.