More than 400 students received a flu shot during the week of October 22 at USC Student Health's free flu shot clinic, according to the Engemann Student Health Center. University health officials hope it's a trend that continues in light of last year's outbreak.
Dr. Sarah Van Orman, Engemann Student Health Center's chief health officer, said that when it comes to flu season, college campuses tend to reflect the greater community. Nationally, only 37 percent of adults got a flu shot last season – lower than the previous season, according to a recent report from the Center for Disease Control. Van Orman hopes that this year, more than a third of the USC student population gets a vaccination.
Since flu shot vaccines are essentially a guess as to which strains of the virus will circulate each year, some vaccines are off the mark. Last year's vaccine wasn't a great match to fight that strain of virus, Van Orman said.
The combination of a bad match and fewer people getting the shot resulted in more hospitalizations, according to the CDC. Van Orman said it also contributed to the outbreak on campus that sickened dozens of students.
But a bad flu season last year could be good for future years, at least in the short term, she said.
"What we tend to find with the flu vaccine is that when we have a bad flu season, the next year will have high flu vaccine rates for a couple years. Then when the flu seasons are not so bad people start to drop off on their flu vaccines," Van Orman said.
Dr. Tam Phan, a resident pharmacist at the USC Pharmacy, said he has seen more students getting their flu shots than last year at this time. Whenever he works at the student clinic there are long lines of students waiting to get their vaccination, he said.
"We do hope to promote more people getting their flu shots due to the fact that there's still a lot of stigma behind the flu shot," he said.
Arianna French, a health and human sciences major, said she has always gotten the vaccine. She has heard people say that it doesn't protect against everything, "but at least it works against something," she said.
"I think it's important that I get a flu shot so I don't get sick and pass it on to other people who might be more vulnerable," French said. "I think it's just my duty as a good citizen."
Van Orman said she also hears a lot of people say that the flu vaccine doesn't work.
But even if someone gets the vaccine and still gets the flu, "they're much less likely to have complications, they're much less likely to be in the hospital, the death rate is much lower among people who've been vaccinated," Van Orman said.
Another myth, according to Van Orman, is that the flu shot will make you sick. But, she said that is scientifically impossible because the influenza vaccine does not contain a live virus. Sometimes her patients will report "feeling it" for a day or so after the shot.
"That's an okay thing," she said. "That's your immune system responding to the vaccine, but it won't give you the flu."
The other reason for this myth is that flu vaccines are administered at the same time as cold and flu season, so people mix them up, Van Orman said.
"Sometimes we'll see someone that says 'I got my flu shot and two days later my nose started running and I got a sore throat. That flu shot made me sick.' In reality it has absolutely nothing to do with the flu shot, you just got another virus," she said.
It's especially important for students on college campuses to get vaccinated because college students work and live in close quarters and are therefore prone to spreading the virus. Additionally, people are most contagious in the 24 hours before they start showing symptoms.
"Is it a perfect vaccine? Absolutely not, but it's really the best tool that we have," she said.
Flu shots started in September and are available at the USC Health Center Pharmacy, the USC Pharmacy and the Medical Plaza Pharmacy on the Health Science Campus. Pricing depends on insurance, ranging from free to $55.
For more information, visit pharmacies.usc.edu.