Who should get it?
The Centers for Disease Control recommends anyone age 6 months or older get a yearly flu vaccine.
It’s especially important, the CDC says, for:
• Children younger than 5 years and adults older than 50.
• People with chronic conditions affecting their lungs, heart.
• People with weakened immune systems.
• Pregnant women.
• Children receiving long-term aspirin therapy.
• Residents of nursing homes and other chronic-care facilities.
• American Indians and Alaska natives.
• Morbidly obese people.
• Health care workers
• Caregivers of children younger than 5 — especially those younger than 6 months — and adults older than 50
• Caregivers of people with medical conditions that put them at higher risk for severe flu-related complications
These groups should not get the flu vaccine:
• People who have ever had a severe allergic reaction to eggs
• People who have ever had a severe allergic reaction to flu vaccine
• People with a history of Guillain–Barré Syndrome — a severe paralytic illness — that occurred after receiving influenza vaccine and who are not at risk for severe illness from the flu
• People who have a fever that day.
Talk to your doctor if you have questions about whether you should get the flu vaccine.
Source: Centers for
Disease Control