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Winter is finally here, which means that it\u2019s time for cozy fires, warm hot cocoa, holiday lights, Christmas carols and\u2026 flu shots. This is the second year that CityMD Urgent Care is providing the Hunter community with free flu shots in courtesy of Hunter College.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Unfortunately, not many students are taking advantage of this free opportunity according to Cynthia Cortes, an administrative assistant at CityMD Urgent Care. \u201cIt\u2019s been about a month now and so far, we\u2019ve only had like 20 students come in to take their flu shots,\u201d said Cortes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One<\/span> Hunter student said that people who don\u2019t get vaccinated are irresponsible, because they can get others sick. \u201cPeople who don\u2019t get the flu shot might spread the flu virus to someone else who could\u2019ve been completely healthy,\u201d said Faiza Khan, a freshman at Hunter. A couple of years ago, Khan could not get out of bed for an entire week due to the flu that she caught from one of her friends who didn\u2019t get the flu shot.\u00a0 \u201cPersonally, I don\u2019t want to be the cause of someone getting sick,\u201d said Khan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A common reason why some Hunter students avoid flu shots was due to their negative opinions about vaccination. \u201cI read an article that said that getting the flu shot can actually cause you to catch the flu,\u201d said Edith Cano, a freshman at Hunter. Cano, who had gotten the shot multiple times in the past, said that she still got the flu even after being vaccinated. \u201cI just don\u2019t see the point of getting the shot if I\u2019m going to get sick anyways.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Like Cano, there are other Americans who believe that the flu vaccine can give a person the flu. In 2015, 14% of 3,000 adults <\/span>reported that they worry the vaccine could infect them with the flu, according to the<\/span> NPR-Truven Health Analytics Health Poll<\/span><\/a>.<\/span> However, this is a common misconception. In fact, receiving the flu shot is highly recommended by the <\/span>Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/span><\/a>, whose study suggested that the flu can be life-threatening, increasing a person\u2019s likelihood of needing admission to an intensive care unit by as much as 82%.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Another student, Shaina Falu, a senior at Hunter, noted that she opts out from receiving the shot every year because of the side effects that she experiences when she gets one. \u201cI have some of the worst side effects whenever I get the shot,\u201d said Falu. \u201cOne year, I had both a headache and body ache that I couldn\u2019t even take my finals.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Other side effects of the flu shot include headache, sore throat, runny nose and constant coughing\u2014symptoms similar to the actual flu\u2014which contributes to the reason why many people believe getting the shot causes the flu.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Still, health professionals recommend that everyone ages 6 months and older receive the vaccination. <\/span>\u201cSide effects are just the body\u2019s immune system temporarily\u00a0 reacting to the vaccine,\u201d explained Dr. Wenny Hu, a pharmacist at CVS Pharmacy on 68th St., Lexington Avenue. \u201cThey last very briefly unlike the actual flu symptoms, which can last for a week or even longer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n According to Dr. Hu, flu shots must be taken every year because the type of flu that circulates the air changes each flu season. \u201cFlu vaccine provides protection against flu viruses that researchers believe will be most prevalent for that year,\u201d said Dr. Hu. \u201cSo just because you received your shot last year, doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re safe from the flu this year.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For students who have not received their free flu shots yet, the offer is available until March 31 at any of the CityMD locations upon presenting their Hunter ID cards.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The free flu shots at CityMD aren’t popular with Hunter students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":2257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2255"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2264,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255\/revisions\/2264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-content\/uploads\/citymd-300x200.jpg\")
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