• social information if applicable

Even the healthiest of people should be vaccinated. If you aren’t convinced you need to protect yourself, consider the need to protect your family, friends, co-workers — even strangers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), getting vaccinated yourself may also protect people around you, including those who are more vulnerable to serious flu illness, like babies and young children, older people, and people with certain chronic health conditions.

Remember to ask for your flu vaccination at your next appointment; otherwise, schedule with urgent care or retail provider.

Flu vaccines will not prevent COVID-19, but they will reduce flu illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths on the health care system and conserve scarce medical resources for people with COVID-19.

General Influenza FAQs

Scheduling FAQs

We prefer all patients to complete our online booking form www.emoryhealthcare.org/flu to schedule a flu vaccination appointment. If you have never been to Emory Healthcare as a patient, you are under the age of 18 years old, or you cannot access the online booking site, please call us to schedule at 404-712-9FLU or 404-712-9358. Hours of operation are M – F from 8am to 5pm.

If you are not able to schedule a flu vaccine appointment online, please contact your provider for additional scheduling options.

If you have an upcoming appointment in the month of October or November, you may receive your flu shot then. Simply ask your provider during your visit. If you would like to confirm that a flu shot is available prior to your visit, please reach out to your provider via the Emory Healthcare Patient Portal.

For specific billing questions related to your flu vaccine, please reach out to your insurance company directly. Self-pay patients will be charged either $35 or $55 for the flu vaccine, depending on the vaccine appropriate for you based on CDC guidelines. 

Emory offers three types of flu shots:

  • Fluarix is for people 18 – 64 years of age.
  • Fluad is for ages 65 and older and is designed specifically to boost the immune response in older patients.
  • Flucelvax is egg-free and is recommended for people who have experienced an anaphylactic response to a previous vaccine.

All three are preservative-free (Thimerosal-free). Emory does not offer pneumonia vaccines except during an office visit with your primary care or other provider.

At this time, we are only scheduling flu shot appointments for adults ages 18 and over.

Patients need to bring photo identification (Driver's License/Passport) and an insurance card. All patients should also wear a mask or facial covering. If patients do not have a mask, one will be provided at the clinic.

Flu Vaccine FAQs

Influenza infection ("the flu") is caused by influenza viruses and is very contagious. Symptoms typically include high fever, cough, muscle and body aches, fatigue, headache and sore throat. People with the flu feel like staying in bed. Although the flu is primarily a respiratory infection, sometimes general aches, fatigue and just lousy feeling are the main symptoms.

Each year, thousands of people die of seasonal influenza-related causes in the United States. Young children, the elderly and those whose immune systems are compromised are most vulnerable.

Emory Healthcare is committed to providing a safe environment for our patients and their families. Therefore, we have made seasonal influenza vaccination mandatory for all of our health care workers, volunteers, vendors and students.

When you enter an Emory Healthcare facility, you will notice hand hygiene kiosks throughout the system. Proper hand hygiene - washing your hands with soap and warm water or using an alcohol-based hand cleanser - is another way to prevent the spread of the flu.

  • FLU often begins with a sudden onset of high fever, muscle and body aches, fatigue, cough and headache. People with the flu feel like staying in bed.
  • The common COLD, caused by many other viruses, has a gradual onset of stuffy nose, sneezing, sore throat and cough.
  • The flu can sometimes be mild and be mistaken for a cold.

Many people associate a "stomach virus" with influenza. However, influenza does not typically include stomach-related symptoms.

The main way that flu viruses are spread is from person to person in respiratory droplets from coughs and sneezes. This is called "droplet spread." This can happen directly when droplets from a cough or sneeze of an infected person travel - usually less than six feet - through the air and land on the mouth or nose of people nearby. Droplet spread also occurs indirectly when you touch a contaminated object, like a doorknob or telephone, and then touch your mouth or nose.

Studies have shown that the influenza virus can survive on environmental surfaces and can infect a person for two to eight hours after being deposited on the surface.

People infected with influenza shed the virus and may be able to infect others from one day before getting sick to five to seven days after onset of symptoms. This can be longer in some people, especially children and people with weakened immune systems.

Getting influenza protects a person (makes one immune) from getting another infection with the same type of flu germ. However, there may be more than one strain of the seasonal flu virus in a given year; so, it is possible to get more than one infection. Getting influenza one season does not usually provide complete immunity to flu in other seasons because of yearly changes in the virus.