Appointments for the employee flu clinics held on campus on November 9th and 10th are intended for active McMaster employees only. Appointments for retirees, family members of employees, or community members are not available.

• employees must follow health and safety guidance while on campus
• flu clinic health professionals will be onsite to provide flu shots
• the workspace will be cleaned between each appointment
• We will be accepting registrations by appointment only to prevent gatherings of employees. Walk-ins will not be accepted.
• PLEASE arrive at the specified time of your appointment so we can adhere to health and safety protocols

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The Public Health Agency of Canada recommends that all people 6 months and older get a yearly flu vaccine. It takes about two weeks after getting the flu vaccine to develop optimal protection, so it is important to get your shot as early as possible.

For the 2022/2023 season, the vaccine that will be available is a Quadrivalent Influenza Vaccine, which is designed to protects against four influenza strains; including two Influenza A viruses and two Influenza B viruses.

The flu shot significantly reduces your risk of illness, hospitalization, and death caused by an influenza virus. Getting a flu shot can also shorten the duration and severity of flu symptoms if you do become ill. The flu shot itself cannot cause the flu.

Flu season often puts an extra burden on the health-care system, so it is important that people do what they can to reduce their chances of getting it. Hospitals and health-care facilities could become overwhelmed if they need to other patients.

It is especially important this year that those at high risk of critical illness from influenza and from COVID-19, including seniors and people with underlying health conditions, receive the flu vaccine to reduce the need for a greater number of critical hospital beds.

Getting a flu vaccine will not protect against COVID-19, however flu vaccination has other important benefits. The flu vaccine is your best defence against getting the flu. Flu vaccines have been shown to reduce the risk of flu illness, hospitalization and death. Getting a flu vaccine this Fall will be more important than ever, not only to reduce your own risk from flu but also to help protect our healthcare system by lowering the number of people with respiratory illness in our community.

Despite increased number of COVID-19 vaccinations, flu viruses and the virus that causes COVID-19 will both be spreading in our community this Fall and Winter. For this reason, getting your flu vaccine will be more important than ever. The Public Health Agency of Canada recommends that all people 6 months and older get a yearly flu vaccine. It takes about two weeks after getting the flu vaccine to develop optimal protection, so it is important to get your shot as early as possible.

According to the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), COVID-19 vaccines may be given at the same time as, or any time before or after, other vaccines, including live, non-live, adjuvanted, and non-adjuvanted vaccines.

For people 5 years of age and older, all seasonal influenza vaccines, including live-attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV), may be given at the same time as, or at any time before or after, administration of other vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines..

More information on most recent findings can be found here