Brittany Jacobs, 20, a mechanical engineering junior, received her first free flu shot from the Student Health Care Center this fall.
Unlike Jacobs, many students don't take free flu shots offered on campus due to lack of medical knowledge and misunderstandings surrounding the vaccine.
"Every time I pass by the flu shot station in winter I tell myself I should do it, but I never do," she said.
Jacobs, like many students, waited until she actually got sick to start protecting herself.
GatorWell Health Promotion Services and the SHCC stress the importance of the flu shot to students and debunk myths surrounding the vaccine.
The most common of these myths among students is that you can actually contract the flu virus from getting the flu vaccine.
"I've heard of students being afraid to get the flu shot because of the fact that they might experience the flu, but sometimes it's the way that the body reacts," said Joi Alexander, health promotion specialist for GatorWell.
This reaction to the shot, which is not actually the flu, should go away in two or three days.
Catherine Seemann, marketing specialist for the SHCC, understands that many of the students with the belief that the flu shot can give you the flu are actually confusing the flu with the common cold.
Another important thing to know is that the flu vaccine does not protect the body from the flu virus until two weeks after vaccination, she said.
And, although rare, you might get sick after a flu shot if there is a flu virus strain circulating that is not covered by that season's flu shot, Seemann said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducts research that will accurately predict what strains of the flu virus should be covered by the flu vaccine that season, she said.
"Nearly all of the time," she said, "the vaccine will protect you."
For more information from the SHCC about the flu vaccine, visit shcc.ufl.edu/services/primary-care/flu/.
