5 Things you need to know about the Nasal Flu Vaccine

 

 

The vaccine landscape for protecting yourself from the flu has changed this year. The nasal spray version of the flu vaccine is now available for children between 5-17 years old at participating pharmacies. Here is what you need to know about the nasal flu vaccine that is more widely available this year:

Nasal Spray Flu Vaccine

1 – No Needles – No need to be anxious over getting the flu vaccine anymore. Protect yourself, and others around you from the flu without getting a “flu shot”. The nasal spray flu vaccine is a painless way to get protection from the flu. Don’t believe me, check out this video of my 5 year old getting the nasal spray flu vaccine to see what he thought about the process:

2 – Effective – The flu vaccine has been shown to be effective at reducing preventing the flu in 50-60% of the overall population when well matched to the flu strains circulating¹. The nasal flu vaccine covers 4 different strains of the flu virus.

3 – Fast – Getting the vaccine didn’t take long at all. As you can see from the video above it only took a minute to administer the vaccine. Afterwards we waited for 15 minutes in Shoppers Drug Mart, and did a little shopping, just to make sure that there was no reaction. You don’t need to make an appointment to get the flu shot or nasal spray vaccine, you can just pop into your local Shoppers Drug Mart Pharmacy to get it.

4 – No prescription required – You do not need a prescription to get the nasal spray flu vaccine from your pharmacy. The pharmacist can administer both the flu shot and nasal flu vaccine to anyone 5 years old and over.

5 – FREE – Getting the flu shot (ages 5 and older) or nasal flu vaccine (5-17 years old) is free in Ontario. Remember to bring in your health card with you, and if you have your immunization record you can bring that too to be filled out to document your vaccination.

It not too late to get protected from the flu, the flu season can last until May.  Just this week there were reports of spikes in flu cases in Saskatoon, SK, and Waterloo, ON.  We are not out of the woods yet!  If you are interested in learning more about the options to help protect you from the flu this year call or stop in to see your local Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacist.  Not all Shoppers Drug Mart locations have this new (and awesome) flu shot alternative, so give the pharmacist a quick call first to check.  And lets all have a safe and healthy winter.

 

References:

1 – https://www.ontario.ca/page/flu-shot-safety

Disclosure:  This post was brought to you by Shoppers Drug Mart.  All opinions are strictly my own.