| Flu Shots |
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Flu shot clinics sponsored by PEBB ended Dec. 3, 2008. If you haven't had a flu shot for this season, please seek another source.
Your medical plan
All PEBB medical plans cover recommended vaccines, including flu shots.
If you are a Kaiser member, you can get a flu shot at a Kaiser facility with no copay. Please contact Kaiser member services.
If you are a Regence, Providence or Samaritan member, check with pharmacies in your area and ask if they will submit a claim for a flu shot to your medical plan. Or, contact your healthcare provider. Keep in mind that if you access a vaccination through your provider, you may be responsible for the co-pay or coinsurance amount for the office visit.
Other Sources
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| Flu Facts |
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- Influenza affects 10-20 percent of the population ever year.
- Flu shots reduce the risk of influenza by up to 90 percent.
- Flu shots are recommended annually to provide protection.
- Vaccination is the single greatest way to prevent influenza and its associated illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths.
- Persons infected with influenza will “shed” the virus for 24-48 hours prior to having symptoms. This shedding is very infectious to those around them.
- Flu vaccination not only protects the individual, but also protects family members and other close contacts by decreasing the risk of influenza transmission.
- Among healthy working adults, influenza vaccination is shown to be cost effective in reducing illness.
- Influenza is a killer, causing an average 36,000 deaths every year. There are an average of 200,000 influenza related hospitalizations every year, 57 percent of whom are among those younger than 65 years of age. This does not include out-patient visits.
- The majority of deaths from influenza are among people 65 years of age or older.
- It is impossible to get the flu from the flu shot.
- Most people have no adverse reaction to the flu shot. The most common reaction is a mildly sore arm. Some people have mild flu-like symptoms that last one to three days.
- It takes one or two weeks to develop immunity after a flu shot. If you develop influenza during this time, it is because you were exposed to influenza prior to developing immunity.
- When Influenza vaccine is plentiful, vaccination is encouraged for everyone, high-risk and healthy.
- A flu shot protects against seasonal human flu which causes about 36,000 deaths in the US every year. It does not protect against the Avian Flu (commonly referred to as Bird Flu). To date, there have been no cases of Avian flu in humans in North America.
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