As flu seasons returns, Medical Services is making on-campus flu shots more accessible.
A new, simplified registration system where students can swipe into vaccination stations has significantly cut down last year’s wait times for flu shots.
“The flu fairs don’t look busy,” said Marcy Ferdschneider, director of Primary Care Medical Services. “Students with a Columbia ID can swipe in at the nurse’s station, get their shot, and leave, whereas in the past there was a much larger registration process. It was much more involved, and it created a little bit of a backup in the line.”
“That to me is really important because we did get feedback from students last year that, ‘Oh my gosh, the lines were so long.’ So if that’s one of the reasons that students are staying away from the flu fairs, they should know that lines are moving,” she added.
Last year, due to public concern about the swine flu, vaccination fairs in Lerner kept many students waiting for up to three hours.
Ferdschneider said that Medical Services would be setting up stations in different buildings on campus, and at varied times: “We have a few in the evening, we have them early in the morning,” she said.
She said that even at their busiest flu fairs, the wait has never been longer than five minutes for anyone.
Some students agree that the administration has done a better job of handling flu fairs this year.
“The line was a lot shorter,” Jane Sellar, SEAS ’12, said.
Ferdschneider also attributed the shorter lines to a decrease in the number of people getting vaccinated. Last year, more people got vaccinations due to the H1N1 scare.
“People shouldn’t fall into this false sense of security that this is not on the eleven o’clock news, so they don’t have to worry about it,” Ferdschneider said. “We can start seeing increased rates of flu at any time during this season, and I think the time to do something to protect yourself is now.”
Mohammad Ataei, a student at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, said he finds that most people are no longer focused on H1N1.
“There has not been much talk about the seriousness of the illness,” Ataei said.
Although the H1N1 scare has passed, Columbia now offers a shot that protects against both swine flu and seasonal flu. Last year, two different vaccinations were necessary.
Some students don’t worry about swine flu and only get vaccinated to prevent a generic flu.
“I wasn’t too worried about it even when the scare was at its height, but the flu shot is worth getting in general any year because having the flu is a pain,” said Josh Edwin, a student in the School of the Arts.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Columbia Health Services both recommend that everyone get a flu shot. Ferdschneider noted that last year’s scare proved that vaccines are effective.
“That’s what’s going to help decrease flu in the community,” Ferdschneider said. “We saw that last year with everybody getting vaccinated so early and so aggressively because of all the media attention around H1N1. We really did see that that third wave that they were expecting didn’t really happen.”
The next flu shot fairs will take place at the Columbia Business School on Thursday from 11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m., Teachers College on Nov. 17 from 2:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m., and at Lerner on Nov. 18 from 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m.
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