Based on a national challenge created by Alana’s Foundation, NC State Student Health Services and UNC-Chapel Hill Campus Health Services have joined together in the Flu Shot Challenge for the 2018 flu season. The competition encourages students, faculty, staff and others to get a flu shot for their health and safety, as well as school pride.

Dr. Julie Casani, director and medical director for Student Health, describes the Flu Shot Challenge and its origins in more detail.

“There is a national challenge named after a young lady who died because she didn’t have the flu shot — it’s called [Alana’s] Foundation,” Casani said. “This is a national college and university flu shot challenge. It started a few years ago, but last year it really expanded and became a national event. This year is the first year that we have gotten involved.”

Originally suggested by UNC, Casani says this challenge is a great way to get more student interest in flu shots, even if it means she might have to wear Carolina blue.

“UNC challenged us and said that they could get more than us,” Casani said. “Currently [UNC] is beating us, so we have to really push this. The loser has to wear the other school’s color for a day, and I do not want to wear Carolina blue. This makes it fun, and gets more interest. If we can beat UNC at anything, we are happy to do that.”

Rebecca Otto, pharmacy director at Student Health Services, has been helping run flu clinics across campus and has already noticed the difference in the number of people being immunized against the flu.

“We have seen a lot more students coming in [to get flu shots], and a lot more faculty and staff too,” Otto said.

Free flu shots on campus are not only open to students, Casani says, but to anyone and everyone in the NC State community. The challenge runs until Dec. 7, encouraging people to get the vaccine during the start of the flu season and before finals.

“Anyone associated with NC State — students, faculty, staff, alumni, friends, a neighbor — can get a flu shot and then complete a survey,” Casani said. “It’s actually the survey hits that count for our challenge. We want everyone to get a flu shot, and we want them to get it on campus if they can. It doesn’t matter if they get the flu shot off campus, they can still fill out the survey and affiliate themselves with NC State.”

Herd immunity, Casani describes, it the main reason why as many people as possible are encouraged to get the flu shot. This is especially true on college campuses.

“The biggest reason on campus [to get flu shots] is because people are close, and if we get enough people immunized we have what’s called ‘herd immunity,’” Casani said. “The more people who are immunized, the less people get sick, the less people can communicate the flu to other people. It protects the pack. We had a terrible flu season last year, and hopefully this year it is better.”

Last flu season alone, there were 391 flu-related deaths in North Carolina.

While the importance of getting a flu shot cannot be understated, Otto says that there are some barriers and misconceptions that prevent students specifically from getting immunized.

“For our population, students are really busy with other priorities and we understand that,” Otto said. “There is a stigma that ‘I got a flu shot and I got the flu.’ We hear that a lot, but it is not a live vaccine so that is not possible. When people say ‘it was only 30 percent effective last year, why should I even get it?’… 30 percent is better than not getting the vaccine and not having any protection.”

Casani said that flu clinic locations were changed this year in hopes of encouraging more people to get the flu shot.

“Last year all of our flu clinics were in Talley,” Casani said. “This year we decided to bring the flu shots to the students, so we reached out to the colleges and asked ‘where is a good spot?’ They can also go to the pharmacy anytime it is open and get their flu shots. If you are a patient at Student Health, we will offer a flu shot.”

With so many options available on campus, Casani says there is no excuse for not getting a flu shot.

“There are lots of ways to get a flu shot on campus,” Casani said. “If you can get a vaccine that is free and prevents you from getting sick, isn’t that a good idea?”

To get a flu shot, visit the pharmacy in the Student Health Center during walk-in hours, visit a flu clinic or set up an appointment at the Student Health Center. For more information visit the Student Health Center website.