ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Flu season doesn’t start for a few more weeks, but when the kids head back to the classroom, so do the germs. So, when is the best time to get a flu shot?

“We will start to see cases pick up as the kids get into the classroom and move away from their outdoor summer activities,” said Erin Pfenninger, a clinical and wellness services coordinator with Wegmans.

Wegmans announced last week that you can get the flu vaccine at any Wegmans pharmacy with no appointment. Pfenninger says the best time to get your flu shot is between now and the end of October.

“You really want to be vaccinated before we see the peaks of the flu season, these flu shots take about two weeks to work, and the peaks of our flu season that we see are really a peak in December and a peak in February,” Pfenninger said.

Walgreens also has the flu vaccine available and you can make an appointment online to get the jab at CVS.

“Sometimes it takes that just little mental reminder of, you know what, this is the time of year when people are starting to get sick. As people are getting those illnesses of moving into the classrooms, we really start to see our activity for vaccines ramp up,” Pfenninger said.

Rochester Regional Health says that hospitalizations for the flu are rare in September. But by the end of December last year, there were 258 hospital admissions in the Finger Lakes region for the flu.

“As we start to transition from these outdoor activities and we have the kids get in these close quarters, whether it be on the bus or in the classrooms, they’re in there for a prolonged period of time and that’s really what causes this sort of like breeding ground for the flu,” Pfenninger said.

Something different about this year’s shot, all flu shots in the United States are “tri-valent”, meaning they will contain two strains of “A” and one strain of “B.” A and B are the strains doctors expect to see in our community.

In the past, the shot has been “quadravalent” meaning two strains of “A” and two strains of “B.” The CDC and World Health Organization dropped that second “B” strain when it disappeared during the COVID pandemic.

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