Flu vaccines will be available through the rest of the term at the Monmouth College Student Health Center, no appointment needed. Amanda Segura, a Licensed Practical Nurse, advises students to get a flu vaccine once a year. “It’s best to get your flu vaccine before November. Usually, we start giving them around October. So, a good reference is you don’t want to be vaccinating when you’re having Thanksgiving dinner. Before Thanksgiving is always a good time.” It is possible the vaccine site will be sore and leave a bruise for a few days. “It’s an inactive virus, so you wouldn’t get sick from the virus,” said Segura. According to Segura, the reason it is important to get a flu vaccine is that it will “help diminish illness.” Similar to the reasoning behind the precautions for COVID, the flu vaccine helps cut down on cases and the spread of the flu. In addition, “[the flu vaccine] doesn’t guarantee you’re not going to get sick, but it helps to diminish the side effects, the illness effects of how long you’re going to be ill for,” said Segura. Some may also be wondering if there are any concerns about getting the COVID vaccine and the flu vaccine. “Now, we can give them both at the same time. At first, they weren’t as familiar with COVID but now we can get the vaccines at the same time.” So unvaccinated students can go and get both vaccines simultaneously if they choose to do so. The flu vaccine has been shown to increase the effectiveness of the COVID vaccine. Segura stated “[The flu vaccine] also helps with the variants of COVID even if you’ve been COVID vaccinated. The flu vaccine will also help to diminish illness from the variants.” “[The flu vaccine] just is a really good thing to
get to help diminish illness.”
Karisa Warren - Features Editor