Anna Gorman, Campus Carrier staff writer
The Ladd Center is offering flu vaccinations throughout September and October in preparation for the flu season. Walk-ins are available on certain days, having started in September, with emails sent out to students indicating availability.
“We try to offer as much walk-in availability as much as we can,” Health Center Assistant Director Melanie Merrin said.
Currently, the Ladd Center only carries flu vaccines because of the storage requirements for other shots.
“When the COVID vaccine first became available, it required a specialized sub-sub-zero refrigeration,” Merrin said. “We don’t have that equipment, so we don’t carry really any other vaccines, the storage requirements and having to maintain the cold chain and the documentation of the temperature stability is pretty extensive.”
Each year, the Ladd Center orders around 250 vaccines for the season.
“That seems to be, on average, the number of students who are wanting the flu shot,” Merrin said. “A lot of students may get theirs off-campus because they typically take most insurance, and commercial insurance will cover vaccines at 100%.”
Merrin said it is convenient for Berry to offer free flu vaccines on-campus, especially for groups of students who are required to have it, such as nursing students.
“It’s nice for them to just be able to get it on campus,” Merrin said. “They don’t want that to be cost-prohibitive for anyone.”
The Ladd Center orders its vaccines under Medical Director Dr. James Douglas’s license, and they are shipped overnight to preserve their temperature. They go straight from the package to the vaccine refrigerator.
“We’re getting that vaccine refrigerator connected to generators to make sure that, if we lose power in the health center, the vaccine refrigerator still stays cold, because it’s so important for maintaining the stability of the vaccines that we store,” Merrin said.
Flu season runs from October to March. It takes around two weeks to develop immunity.
“Immunity can start to wane towards the end of flu season, but not in such an appreciable way that it wouldn’t make sense for you to get the flu shot when it becomes available,” Associate Professor of Biology DeLacy Rhodes said.
Because of those two weeks it takes for the body to build immunity, there isn’t any immediate protection upon getting the vaccine. Merrin gets her flu shot in September to prepare for the start of flu season or an early flu season.
“[The flu vaccine] won’t 100% prevent you from catching the flu,” Merrin said. “But, if you do get the flu and you’ve had the vaccine, your symptom severity and duration is usually less and your viral load is less, and therefore you’re less contagious to other people as well.”
Rhodes said that the yearly flu season stems from our activities during the colder months.
“In the winter, we typically are inside, we’re in closer contact with more people, and that increases the chance for us to catch a virus like the flu,” Rhodes said.
Vaccines work by exposing the immune system to small, non-infectious pieces of microbes.
“If we ever do come in contact with that microbe, our immune system is ready to deal with it quickly and immediately, and that can save us from having to have any ill effects from exposure to that pathogen,” Rhodes said.
While the Ladd Center has not seen any flu cases on campus yet, Merrin said outbreaks in small groups on campus are common.
“We’ll see it in little clusters, like on certain sports teams,” Merrin said. “When students go away and come back after Christmas break or after spring break, or any time that people travel a lot and spend time in groups, then it seems like illnesses are brought back and spread through the Berry community.”
As of Friday, 50 flu shot doses were left.
“It takes less than five minutes,” Merrin said.