Well, here we are. September….2020. Even as most of us wish that was a 2021, or even a 2022, the reality is that we’re still in 2020 and now we’re looking down the barrel of the 2020-21 flu season. There has been a fair amount of news about flu vaccines this year and their importance given the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Heard of that?
Here’s a link to the CDC’s site with a lot of FAQs about the flu and flu vaccine this year in the context of COVID-19. Lot’s of good info.
Bottom line. We’ve never had a flu season during which SARS-CoV-2 was also circulating so there are A LOT of unknowns. One thing we do know is that the flu vaccine is safe and effective. So when it comes down to the risks (those unknowns mentioned) vs the benefits (countless and proven year after year to be really, really important), the choice to us as a group of pediatricians seems pretty straight forward. We hope you agree!
All that being said, here’s where we stand currently with the vaccine:
We will be giving Flulaval this year. This is a quadrivalent (see the above link) vaccine.
The vaccine is preservative free.
We currently are not planning to administer the live attenuated influenza vaccine (nose spray).
PER STATE REGULATION, we are not allowed to give that Flulaval vaccine which is designated for patients covered by Medicaid until after October 1st. We’re currently waiting for that vaccine to arrive and will get flu clinics on the schedule for our Medicaid families as soon as we can.
We recommend flu vaccine for ALL PATIENTS ages 6 months and up.
We currently have received flu vaccine for our patients covered by private insurance carriers. Below are details for the first couple of flu clinics that we have scheduled
FLU CLINICS FOR PATIENTS COVERED BY PRIVATE INSURANCE CARRIERS
WHERE: Buffalo Gap Clinic location
DAY: Saturday, September 12th (THAT’S THIS SATURDAY) and Saturday, September 19th
TIME: 8AM – 1PM
HOW DO I GET INVITED: Call the office and schedule an appointment for your kid(s)
HOW’S IT WORK: When you arrive at the Buffalo Gap location stay in your car and call us to get checked in over the phone (just like you’ve been doing with regular office visits). We will call you back when a room is ready for you to bring the kid(s) back and get the vaccine. Here are the numbers to call when you arrive:
325-704-6048 OR 325-704-6049
CALL TODAY (325-677-2801) to get on the schedule. We have limited spots but will be scheduling more of these so keep following Facebook for updates.
Finally, flu stinks and so does COVID-19. And while we may be the first to ever have to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and flu together, many have seen the challenges of a pandemic before (albeit it was a long time ago). A lot of songs were written during and after the 1918 Spanish Flu (poorly named but that’s neither here nor there). Here’s one I came across. MEGA KUDOS and SHOUT OUTS to anyone who can respond to this blog post on our Facebook page playing this piece….instrument of your choosing.
As always, thanks for trusting us with your kids. We’re honored. Truly.
Peds Associates