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Just in time for the holidays… it's flu season again. It's a key education opportunity for any well-run workplace wellness program.

For many who try to decide whether to get a flu shot, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created their Frequently Asked Flu Questions 2017-2018 Influenza Season: “Getting an annual flu vaccine is the first and best way to protect yourself and your family from the flu. Flu vaccination can reduce flu illnesses, doctors’ visits, and missed work and school due to flu, as well as prevent flu-related hospitalizations…The more people who get vaccinated, the more people will be protected from flu, including older people, very young children, pregnant women, and people with certain long-term health conditions who are more vulnerable to serious flu complications.”

A common question for many of us: How bad will it be?

MedPage Today runs a video with William Schaffner, MD, professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine: “He also advised clinicians to ‘be a vaccine insister' this flu season.”

Among Dr. Schaffner's reasons for promoting the vaccine, when one gets the flu: “This inflammatory response persists after you recover from flu. In the two weeks to a month after you recover from influenza, you have about a 3 to 5 times increased risk of having a heart attack. You have a 2 to 3 times increased risk of having a stroke. Nobody wants a heart attack or a stroke. So by preventing flu and this inflammatory response, you can help prevent those strokes and heart attacks.”

The entire video can be seen here.