Common Questions, Answered

Four Reasons to Get the Flu Shot Each Year

By Published Last reviewed

Short answer: a yearly flu shot lowers your odds of catching influenza, cuts the chance you pass it to colleagues, family or vulnerable people, and means you keep your week instead of losing one in bed. The vaccine composition is reviewed every year because the virus changes, and many Australians can get it free under the National Immunisation Program. Here are the four reasons that actually matter.

The flu is more serious than people remember

A classic Akubra Cattleman hat in stockman-tan felt sits slightly tilted on a weathered red-gum timber pub bench somewhere up the New England Highway in autumn, the leather hat-band carefully stamped in deep relief with the two words VAX READY in heritage stockman's-saddle typography, a folded copy
The annual ritual gets noticed by the Akubra band before it gets noticed by anyone else. Get the shot. Move on with the season.

Influenza is the most common vaccine-preventable disease in Australia. The Australian Immunisation Handbook states that “on average each year in Australia, influenza causes approximately 100 deaths and 5100 hospitalisations”, and that these numbers are widely believed to under-represent the true burden. Risk climbs sharply in older adults, very young children, pregnant women and people with chronic heart, lung, kidney or immune conditions.

For workplaces it is also a productivity story. The AIH states that “annual attack rates in the general community are typically 5–10%, but may be up to 20% in some years. In households and ‘closed’ populations, attack rates may be 2–3 times higher” (AIH). Once one person brings it into an office or a classroom, it tends to move quickly. A vaccinated team breaks that chain earlier.

The flu shot will not give you the flu

The injected vaccines used in Australia are inactivated. They contain fragments of the virus, not a live, replicating one, so they cannot cause an influenza infection. The Australian Immunisation Handbook classifies these injected formulations as separate from live attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIV), which are administered intranasally and not used in routine workplace programs (AIH). What people sometimes feel afterwards is the immune system doing its job: a sore arm, mild redness or swelling at the injection site, and occasionally a low-grade fever or tiredness for a day or two. These reactions are listed in the AIH as common and short-lived.

It also takes about two weeks for protection to build, so it is possible to be exposed to flu just before, or in the days after, your shot and still get sick. That is timing, not a vaccine failure. A small subset of people pick up an unrelated respiratory virus around the same time and assume the shot caused it. Our nurses go through a full consent and screening process with every recipient on the day, so concerns are answered before the needle, not after.

Last year’s shot will not cover this year

Influenza viruses mutate constantly. Surface proteins drift from one season to the next, which is why the World Health Organization and the Australian Influenza Vaccine Committee review and update vaccine composition every year (AIH). Even when the strains do not change much, post-vaccination protection starts to wane after 3–4 months, so a 12-month-old shot leaves you exposed in the part of the season that matters.

In Australia, “influenza circulation usually peaks between June and September in most parts of Australia” (AIH, Timing of influenza vaccination), and the Department of Health and Aged Care advises that “you should get your annual influenza vaccine anytime from April onwards to be protected for the peak flu season” (DoH, Influenza (flu) vaccine). For most workplace programs, April and May line up best with this window. Get vaccinated too early and protection can dip before peak; leave it too late and you miss the run-up entirely. Corporate Care’s onsite clinics are timed against this curve so staff are protected before the season hits its stride.

The shot may be free to you

Several groups receive flu vaccine free under the National Immunisation Program. The Department of Health and Aged Care lists eligibility as: “The influenza vaccines are free under the National Immunisation Program for” children aged 6 months to under 5 years, adults aged 65 and older, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 6 months and older, pregnant women at any stage of pregnancy, and anyone aged 6 months and over with specified medical conditions that raise the risk of severe influenza. The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) advises the Minister on the medical administration of vaccines available through the NIP.

If you sit outside those NIP categories, your employer may cover it. Many Australian organisations now run workplace flu programs for the simple reason that the cost of a vaccine is far smaller than the cost of a winter outbreak through the team. Every dose we administer is recorded in the Australian Immunisation Register, which means staff have an official record they can pull up later through Medicare or myGov, regardless of where they had their previous shots.

Run a flu clinic at your workplace.

AHPRA-registered Accredited Nurse Immunisers, digital consent on arrival, full AIR reporting. We run programs across Australia and New Zealand. Request a quote and we will come back to you within one business day, or call us and we will talk you through it.

Sources

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Corporate Care acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands across Australia on which we work and live. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and community.