The calendar says October, but already there are places in the western U.S. reporting an abnormally high number of early flu cases.
“I think when people hear that we do see an uptick in phone calls and people interested in the vaccine” said Breda Koch, the Immunization Program Manager at Riverstone Health. She told Yellowstone Public Radio a seemingly early start to the flu season in parts of the country means it is time to get vaccinated.
While no vaccine can guarantee you won’t get the flu, Koch said the coverage can go a very long way. “Our goal is to keep you out of the hospital. So we’re not saying you’re not going to get the flu, but you should be less sick.”
The vaccine will be available at the clinic to anyone aged six months and older. Still, Koch knows there are questions.
“Everyone has questions now about vaccines because there’s a lot of misinformation out there, so our job is even more important now to keep educating that nothing’s changed, we’re still recommending the same vaccines for the same people” Koch said, encouraging people to get those answers from their doctors.
The clinic will also serve as a public health preparedness exercise, testing procedures for distributing vaccines or medications to large numbers of people during an emergency. Something that may bring back memories of the Covid-19 Pandemic for some.
“It’s definitely been something that I think has been a little bit more visible since then, because we’ve seen how that looks in action” said Riverstone Health’s Rhianna Tretin about the exercise, though she added clinic attendees should not notice anything out of the ordinary.
Still, the exercise is expected to play a critical role when it comes both to current and future health emergency preparedness.
“It’s so important that we do this on a regular basis because we need to know that in the case of an emergency, we can protect our community” Koch added.
The Flu vaccine clinic takes place Wednesday afternoon between 4 and 6 at the Billings Public Library. If you have insurance, bring your card, low and no cost vaccines will be available for people without insurance. If you can not make it to the clinic, flu vaccines are available at RiverStone Health without a prescription. To learn more, or schedule an appointment at the RiverStone Health Immunization Clinic, go to RiverStoneHealth.org or call (406) 247-3382.
