Local pharmacy seeing high demand in flu shots this year

 

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind.—We are a couple of months into flu season, but there’s still plenty of time to get a flu shot. This year, because of the coronavirus pandemic, health experts are saying it's very important to get the vaccine.

A Meijer pharmacy manager said they’re seeing an increase in people getting their flu shot, over previous years.

“We’re expecting about a 75 percent increase over last year and we’re definitely, the numbers seem to indicate every bit of that this year,” Andy Bergman said.

According to the CDC, last year 40 percent of Americans received the flu shot. This year, however, that numbers are expected to increase. Bergman said it's because there's a heightened awareness among people to get the flu shot, especially since flu season is combined with the ongoing COVID-19.

“We’re seeing people maybe in years past that maybe were hesitant to get the vaccine or maybe didn’t want to get it, maybe this year they’re considering it for the first time just because of all the awareness of COVID and sort of protecting themselves against another sort of upper respiratory sort of infections that they could possibly get this year,’ Bergman said.