Forgot Your Flu Vaccine? With ‘Historic’ Infections, It’s Not Too Late for a Shot

If the flu has hit your household this winter — or your workplace or your friend group — you’re not alone. The Bay Area is in the middle of a particularly pronounced wave of influenza infections, mirroring a wave across California.

As anyone who’s had the flu can attest, the virus is no joke. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that this season alone, nationwide, there have been at least 29 million illnesses, 370,000 hospitalizations, and 16,000 deaths from flu so far. The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) said it has received reports of 11 children in California who have died due to flu-related complications this season.

Jump straight to: Where to find a flu shot in the Bay Area

The CDC also warns that the flu is also proving deadlier in the U.S. than COVID-19 this season. The week ending Jan. 25 was the first time that the percentage of deaths for influenza was higher than those for COVID-19 — and flu deaths have continued to increase throughout this season.

There is one piece of good news: If you didn’t get your shot in the last months of 2024, you can still get vaccinated now and increase your protection against the current wave.

“As long as flu is circulating in our communities, it’s not too late to get your flu vaccine,” said Dr. Erica Pan, CDPH Director and State Public Health Officer. “As a parent and a pediatrician, I ensure my family gets the flu vaccine every year because I am confident the flu vaccine is safe and can help prevent serious illness, like pneumonia and hospitalization.”

Where are we right now in flu season?

The current statewide test positivity rate for the flu — that is, the percentage of tests taken that return a positive result — is 26.7%, placing it in CDPH’s “high” category. By contrast, the latest test positivity rate for COVID-19 is 2.6%, which is in the agency’s “low” category.

Flu represents 8% of hospital visits around the country right now, said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a pediatric infectious disease expert at Stanford. That’s “higher than we’ve actually seen since this particular strain of flu, the H1N1 flu, showed up as a pandemic in 2009,” she said. “So it’s actually pretty historic.”

Flu season tends to run from October to March, Maldonado said. While she and her colleagues actually thought this season had reached its peak “a couple of weeks ago,” she said, “the numbers just haven’t gone down.”

“Flu did a little trick on us because it looked like it was peaking” a couple of weeks ago, Maldonado said. “It came down a little bit — and then it popped up even higher.”

When it comes to Bay Area hospital admissions, “We’re definitely getting crunched,” she said, “because the numbers are higher, more people are getting flu, and more people are being hospitalized or coming into the emergency department.”

Can I still get a flu shot now?

Yes.

Experts usually recommend that people seek out their flu shot in the fall, ahead of the coming winter wave of infections, and the CDC recommends that everyone 6 months and older get an annual flu vaccine “ideally by the end of October.” However, the CDC also said that people “should continue to get vaccinated as long as flu viruses pose a threat to their community.”

That means that if you forgot to get your shot back in the last months of 2024 — and you haven’t been hit by a flu infection yourself this winter — it’s not too late to get the vaccine now and increase your protection against the current wave.

“If you can and are interested, and you think you’re at risk, people should still get vaccinated,” Maldonado said. “There’s still time because it takes about two weeks or so for the antibodies to really kick in hard. And I do think that the risk is out there.”

What if you got your flu shot in the fall, after all? “We don’t recommend a second dose at this time,” Maldonado said.

The flu vaccine reduces your risks of severe illness and hospitalization. The virus can be especially dangerous for kids, and the CDC said that a 2022 study showed that flu vaccination reduced children’s risk of severe, life-threatening influenza by 75%.

Despite this, vaccination rates among all Americans aged 6 months and older during the 2022–23 flu season was 49.3% — a slight drop from the previous year. And this year, CDPH said their data shows “only a small percentage of eligible Californians have received the appropriate respiratory virus vaccines.”

Where can I still find a flu shot?

If you have health insurance, a flu shot is covered and available without extra cost as a preventive service from your usual health care provider. It’s also available at most pharmacies (see below).
Common places to find a flu shot appointment, walk-in site or drive-thru flu shot:

• CDC’s Find Flu Vaccines tool.
• Kaiser Permanente flu shots (Northern California).
• CVS flu shots.
• Walgreens flu shots.
• Rite Aid flu shots.
• Costco Pharmacy flu shots.
• Albertsons (Safeway) flu shots.

Where can I get a flu shot if I don’t have health insurance?

If you want a flu shot but don’t have health insurance, you can get the vaccine free of charge from several providers and community clinics around the Bay Area. (You can also technically use these free services even if you do have insurance, but you may consider choosing to reserve these particular resources for those without coverage.)

Your county’s public health department may also be offering flu shots.

Places to get a free or low-cost flu shot in the Bay Area include:

• San Francisco Department of Public Health’s AITC clinic (offers a pay-what-you-can option.)
• Contra Costa Public Health Immunization Clinic (flu shots are $15 for adults over 19, but fees may be waived if you’re unable to pay.)
• Alameda County Immunization Clinics.

This story contains reporting by KQED’s Nina Thorsen.