Friday, October 30, 2020
Community flu-shot events sponsored by Beaumont’s Teen Health Centers
The CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index predicts how well a community will handle natural disasters and pandemics. Detroit and many Wayne County zip codes have some of the highest social vulnerability rates, which indicate a poor health response and high financial stress when these situations occur. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic combined with the start of flu season could create challenges. Experts are calling this perfect storm of events a “twindemic.”
“We’re offering free flu shots to help protect our at-risk communities from a potential twindemic,” said Maureen Murphy, a family medicine nurse practitioner, Beaumont Teen Health Center - River Rouge. “The opportunity to provide flu vaccinations within the community beyond our school clinics’ walls assists with people’s lack of access to medical care.”
From 8 a.m. to noon, Friday, Oct. 30
- Location: Thurston High School located at 26255 Schoolcraft Avenue, Redford Township 48239
- Staffed by health caregivers of the Beaumont Child & Adolescent Center – Pierce
- Age 19 and older
- Drive-up event outside
From 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 3
- Location: Tomlinson Middle School located at 25912 Annapolis Street, Inkster 48141
- Staffed by health caregivers at Beaumont Teen Health Center - Westwood
- Age 18 and older
- Flu shots given in building, which will be open on Election Day
From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Thursday and Friday, Nov. 5 - 6
- Location: Iglesia Cristiana La Roca Eterna, a church located at 4300 Lonyo Street, Detroit 48210
- Staffed by health caregivers of the Beaumont Teen Health Center- River Rouge
- A bilingual event with both English and Spanish speakers
- Ages 10 - 60
- Drive-up event outside
From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 10
- Location: Romulus High School located at 9650 Wayne Road, Romulus 48174
- Staffed by health caregivers of the Beaumont Teen Health Center – Romulus
- Ages 18 - 64
- Drive-up event outside
Matthew Sims, M.D., Ph.D., director of Infectious Disease Research at Beaumont Health, says to get a flu shot because:
- Two respiratory infections, COVID-19 and the flu, could break out at the same time and easily spread and require similar treatments.
- People who test positive for one of these two infections may be more susceptible to contracting the other.
- The flu can be very taxing to people and health care systems, but in combination with a second surge of COVID-19, the risk is that much greater.
- One infection could make individuals much more vulnerable to the other, worsening outcomes.
- The flu vaccine may provide added defense against COVID-19, which may be due to the flu vaccine priming the immune system to respond to COVID-19 and boosting immunity.