Get your children vaccinated!
Be sure your parents get vaccinated, too!
The Best Reasons to Get Vaccinated
Influenza can make you, your children, and your parents really sick.
Influenza usually comes on suddenly. Symptoms can include high fever, chills, headaches, exhaustion, sore throat, cough, and all-over body aches. Some people say, “It felt like a truck hit me!” Symptoms can range from mild to severe. When influenza strikes your family, the result is lost time from work and school and, possibly, doctor visits and trips to the hospital.
Influenza spreads easily from person to person.
An infected person can spread influenza when they cough, sneeze, or just talk near others. Some people might get flu by touching a surface contaminated with the flu virus and then touching their own mouth, nose, or eyes. People infected with flu don't have to feel sick to be contagious — they may even spread the flu virus to others the day before they have symptoms.
Influenza and its complications can be so serious that they can put you, your children, or your parents in the hospital — or lead to death.
Each year in the U.S., from 140,000 – 810,000 people are hospitalized and from 12,000 – 61,000 people die from influenza and its complications. The people most likely to be hospitalized and die are infants, young children, older adults, and people of all ages who have conditions such as heart or lung disease. But it’s not only the youngest, oldest, or sickest who die: every year influenza kills people who were otherwise healthy.
Influenza can be a very serious disease for you, your family, and friends — but you can all be protected by getting vaccinated.
There’s no substitute for yearly vaccination in protecting the people you love from influenza. Vaccination will help keep you and your loved ones safe from a potentially deadly disease. Get vaccinated every year, and make sure your children and your parents are vaccinated, too.
Make sure you all get vaccinated against influenza every year!
Source: Immunize.org document #P4069 (Aug 2023)
New for people age 65 and older 
There are three influenza vaccines that are preferentially recommended by the CDC for people 65 years and older. They are
Studies show that these vaccines are potentially more effective than standard dose unadjuvanted influenza vaccines for this age group. Be sure to ask your healthcare provider or the pharmacist about these vaccines when you get vaccinated.
