Where to Get a Free Flu Shot Right Now—With or Without Insurance - Health.com
Quick question: Have you gotten your flu shot yet? If your answer is "yes," good for you; carry on. If your answer is "no," what are you waiting for? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone age six months and older (with just a few exceptions) should get a flu shot before the end of October. That's because the flu season typically begins in October and starts to peak in December—and it takes several weeks to develop full immunity from the shot, according to the CDC. Getty Images Once you get that flu shot, it'll last you about six months, Vanessa Raabe, MD, pediatric infectious disease specialist at NYU Langone Health, told Health —which means the flu shot you got last year most definitely won't give you any protection for this year's flu season. Plus, the CDC says that the flu vaccine changes from year to year as scientists try to predict which strains of the virus will be dominant.