While mid-October through November is the ideal time to be immunized, you can get a flu shot anytime, so long as there is no outbreak of flu in your community. While the effectiveness of flu shots varies from person to person, studies of young adults have shown that the flu vaccine is 70 to 90 percent effective in preventing illness. In the elderly and people with chronic medical problems, the vaccine is often less effective at preventing illness, but still reduces how severe the illness may be, and reduces the risk of serious complications and death. Studies have also shown vaccination reduces hospitalizations by about 70 percent and deaths by about 85 percent among the elderly who are not in nursing homes. Among nursing home residents, vaccination reduces the risk of being hospitalized by around 50 percent, the risk of contracting pneumonia by about 60 percent and the risk of death between 75 and 80 percent.
Flu vaccinations are very safe.
Less than one out of three people who receive a flu shot have some soreness at the vaccination site, and about 5 to 10 percent may experience mild symptoms such as headache or low-grade fever for about a day after receiving their flu shot. These side effects are most likely to occur in children who have never been exposed to the flu virus. You cannot get the flu from a flu shot. Some older people remember earlier flu vaccines that did produce unpleasant side effects. These vaccines were made during the 1940s to the mid-1960s and were not as pure as modern flu vaccines.