The John J. Pershing VA Medical Center and its various outpatient clinics across the region will be hosting cost-free flu vaccine clinics in September and October.
At the Poplar Bluff hospital, a drive-thru clinic will be held from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. Sept. 22 through Oct. 8.
“They can come straight to that half moon drive in front of the main entrance,” said Ashley Aubuchon, veterans flu campaign coordinator.
Everyone arriving for the flu vaccine should bring identification so their veteran status can be checked, Aubuchon said.
Those veterans who cannot make it to the drive-thru clinic also can walk in at the hospital during business hours.
“We highly encourage them to come to one of these scheduled clinic days, but of course they can always walk in and get it at primary care, or they can get it at their next scheduled appointment,” Aubuchon said.
“We’ll do whatever we can to make it quick and painless,” she added.
The VA’s outpatient clinics also have scheduled one-day flu vaccine clinics, with each running from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m.
“All the outpatient clinics are doing their own thing with one-day clinics,” Aubuchon said. “They chose their own dates.”
Those include:
• Cape Girardeau, Oct. 19
• West Plains, Oct. 21
• Sikeston, Oct. 22
• Pocahontas, Oct. 22
• Farmington, Oct. 26
• Paragould, Oct. 29
Additional opportunities to get the flu vaccine through the Veterans Administration, Aubuchon said, may also be scheduled.
“We hope to vaccinate the vast majority of veterans at these clinics, but we still know we need to get out there in the community, too,” Aubuchon said.
The flu shot, Aubuchon noted, is safe, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, even if a patient has had the COVID-19 vaccine.
In fact, both can be taken on the same day.
“We’re following the recommendations from the CDC that actually just came down saying it is perfectly safe to receive your COVID vaccine and your flu vaccine in the same day,” Aubuchon said. “We’re not seeing any contraindications that you shouldn’t be able to get both of them.”
It’s important for veterans to get vaccinated against the flu in the fall, Aubuchon said, before cases start to arrive.
“We want to get everybody vaccinated ideally in the months of October and November. We start seeing spikes in the flu in the months after that,” she said.
However, the vaccine can be taken even into late spring.
“The recommendation says you can get a flu vaccine until it expires, and that is not until June 30 of 2022,” Aubuchon said, “so it’s never too late.”