FORMS

LET COMP PREPARE YOUR EMPLOYEES FOR FLU SEASON

Injuries aren’t the only thing impacting your employees’ health. Each year, businesses lose 20 million workdays of productivity due to seasonal flu. Flu shots are the top recommendation to help avoid flu illness and minimize the effects of the flu if contracted. Research shows flu shots also:

  • Reduce worsening of chronic heart and lung conditions and diabetes.

  • Significantly decrease medical visits and hospitalizations

Supporting employee health has always been a big factor for employer-sponsored flu vaccination campaigns and working with an occupational health expert like COMP. If we have learned nothing from the COVID-19 pandemic we have at least seen firsthand what major challenges to our business stability an illness can cause. That’s why COMP is promoting flu vaccination programs to try to keep influenza infections to a minimum.

Influenza may be viewed as commonplace and no more threatening than the common cold but that’s not a sound conclusion. Health officials cannot predict from year-to-year how serious the seasonal flu will be. No one can predict the extent and severity of the flu season. Best to be prepared by getting flu shots for your entire workforce.

When employees get the flu, they cannot – and should not – report to work. This means a severe and widespread influenza season may create a substantial burden on businesses to find replacement staff. Productivity could take a hit while work responsibilities are shifted over to healthy employees or replacement staff.

You can keep your workforce healthier this flu season by sending your employees to your local COMP clinic now for a FLUARIX flu vaccine. COMP has protocols in place that follow all official guidelines to safeguard employees from COVID-19 when they come into a COMP clinic to get a flu shot (or for any other health service).

The flu vaccine is also available for the workforces of employers with COMP ONSITES, where we come to your place of employment. Contact COMP to make plans for your seasonal flu vaccination program.

COMP is here to help you protect your employees as best we can!

 

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT COMP

FAQ

We're addressing your basic flu questions so you feel confident heading into flu season
Vaccination stimulates the immune system against a vaccine-preventable disease like the flu. The flu shot helps your body make antibodies to fight the flu virus. It takes approximately 2 weeks for a flu shot to start working and help protect you from the flu.
Flu viruses change each year. New flu vaccines are created every year to fight the latest virus. Plus, the immunity you get from a flu shot only lasts about a year.
Any side effects are generally mild and go away within a few days. Common side effects include soreness or redness at the injection site, headache, fever, nausea, and muscle aches.
Recent studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that, on average, the flu vaccine can reduce the risk of flu by 40% to 60%. Effectiveness can vary based on how well the vaccine matches the strain of the virus each year. But even if you get the flu, the vaccine can still help make your symptoms less severe.
No. The flu shot can’t give you the flu. The vaccine doesn’t contain a live virus, so it can’t make you sick.
Yes. It’s possible to get the flu even if you got a flu shot. This may happen because:
  • You caught the flu before the vaccine started to work. It takes 2 weeks for the vaccine’s antibodies to develop and protect you from the virus.
  • You got a virus that isn’t covered by the flu vaccine. The vaccine protects against 3 or 4 of the most common viruses expected during a specific year.
The official answer from the CDC is no, the flu shot will not help protect you from COVID-19. While it’s true that seasonal flu and COVID-19 are both contagious respiratory illnesses, the flu shot is designed to help protect against the two main types of influenza viruses, A and B viruses. COVID-19 is caused by infection with the coronavirus, a new virus also called SARS-CoV-2, which is different than the influenza viruses.
There are similarities and differences between COVID-19 and the flu, so the best advice is to familiarize yourself and your employees with the comparisons as follows. This information is from the CDC.
With both COVID-19 and flu, adults may experience fevers (with or without chills), cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, fatigue, runny or stuffy nose, muscle pain or body aches, headache, and sometimes vomiting or diarrhea. COVID-19 also may be associated with loss of smell or taste.
It may take longer for symptoms to appear with COVID-19 than with the flu. With COVID-19, the time from infection to first symptoms may be anywhere from two days to 14 days. Flu symptoms generally appear one to four days after infection.
We are still learning about COVID-19 but it’s believed a person can spread the virus from two days before symptoms appear to 10 days after symptoms first appeared or until 10 days after testing, if the employee was asymptomatic when tested and has remained without symptoms. A longer period of infectiousness may occur for people who are severely immunocompromised or hospitalized with severe COVID-19. With flu, an adult may be contagious from one day before showing symptoms for about seven days after symptoms appear.

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