Despite a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control that everyone older than 6 months get one, the Student Health Care Center ordered half as many flu shots as last year.
According to Catherine Seemann, a marketing specialist at the SHCC, 10,000 vaccinations were ordered in anticipation of increased demand because of H1N1 flu, in 2010, and 7,000 were administered.
Seemann said the SHCC ordered only 5,000 this year because H1N1 is less of a public concern.
The SHCC will begin offering vaccines in late September at the infirmary and Shands at UF, and outreach clinics will open around campus in October.
The flu shot is free for students on campus and $25 for faculty.
"College students in general are a fairly healthy population, so they think, ‘I don't really have to get the shot,'" Seemann said. "The reality is even if they don't have terrible symptoms, they can spread it to other people with different reactions to the flu."
Seemann highly recommends getting the shot and encourages those who are unsure about the flu vaccine to visit www.flu.gov for more information.
