You Should Take Advantage Of This Free Health Service This Fall

Unsplash/Jakob Owens

It’s officially that time of year when everyone around you is coughing, sniffling and sneezing like crazy. For many, this scenario begs the question, “Should I get a flu shot?” And our answer to that is simple: “Why not?”

In 2015, NPR polled more than 3,000 people about whether they intended on being vaccinated for that year’s prominent strains of the flu. A whopping 48 percent of them said no simply because they didn’t think they needed it.

Now, that reasoning seems a little short-sided for several reasons.

Sure, your odds of contracting the flu without being vaccinated aren’t sky high if you’re a healthy person. But even healthy people who do end up unlucky and flu-ridden, the risks are high — like, premature death high. Additionally, you don’t get a flu shot to protect yourself from the virus. You get the flu shot to significantly decrease the odds of someone else with a weaker immune system contracting an illness that you brought into their space because you chose not to take precaution.

Unsplash/AZGAN MjESHTRI

It’s worth acknowledging that those people with easily compromised immune systems aren’t at a disadvantage because they make unhealthy life decisions. It’s because they’re elderly, like your grandparents. Or they’re pregnant. Or they’re a very young child. Or they were born with a disorder that compromises their immune system in some way, shape or form, and they just can’t help it. They don’t get to decide whether you skipping out on the flu shot will impact them negatively. It’s either going to happen, or it’s not. And if it does, the repercussions can be tragic.

If those two points don’t sway you, the flu shot is offered for free at most pharmacies across the country. It is literally of no cost to you — okay, other than a few minutes of waiting and a needle prick.

So, if you’re approaching the winter months with this question still lingering in the back of your mind, go ahead and address it by getting the freaking flu shot at your local CVS so you move on with your life and use that brain power for other productive things.