Why You Should Get a Flu Shot This Year

If you’re on the fence, here’s what you actually need to know: how effective this year’s flu shot is, what it really protects you from, what side effects to expect, who should prioritize getting one, and how easy CityDoc makes it to just get it done.

Flu vaccine effectiveness varies year to year based on how well that season’s vaccine matches the strains actually circulating. According to CDC data, overall effectiveness has ranged from as low as 19% to as high as 60% over the past two decades, with a preliminary estimate of about 36% for the 2025–2026 season based on early CDC surveillance data.

That number can sound discouraging, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Even in lower-effectiveness years, vaccinated people who do get the flu tend to have milder symptoms, lower hospitalization rates, and fewer complications than people who skipped the shot. CDC continues to recommend annual vaccination for almost everyone 6 months and older specifically because the benefit holds up even when the match isn’t perfect.

Scientists formulate a new vaccine every year because flu viruses mutate constantly, and they have to predict months in advance which strains are most likely to circulate. That’s also why last year’s immunity doesn’t carry over—your protection fades over time, and circulating strains shift, so an annual shot isn’t a formality; it’s how the protection actually works.

Many people judge the flu shot purely by whether it stops them from getting sick at all — but that’s only part of what it does. Getting vaccinated also lowers your risk of severe illness, reduces the chance you’ll end up in a hospital bed, and cuts down on the ripple effects of missed work, missed school, and missed plans.

It also protects the people around you who can’t easily protect themselves — newborns too young to be vaccinated, grandparents, a coworker going through chemotherapy. Flu spreads fast in households, classrooms, and offices, and every vaccinated person in that chain makes it a little harder for the virus to find its next host. Public health researchers call this community protection: the more people around a vulnerable person are vaccinated, the less likely the virus is to reach them in the first place.

There’s a practical angle too. A bad flu case can mean three to five days of being genuinely unable to work, parent, or function — on top of the days it takes to fully recover afterward. For many people, the time cost of getting the flu is far higher than the few minutes it takes to get the shot.

Weighed honestly, here’s how it breaks down:

• Pros: lowers your risk of severe illness and hospitalization, even in years when the strain match is imperfect; protects vulnerable people around you through community protection; costs just $18 self-pay at CityDoc or is typically covered at no cost by insurance; takes a few minutes with no appointment needed.
• Cons: it’s not a guarantee against catching the flu at all; you need a new shot every year as circulating strains shift; it can cause a short list of mild, temporary side effects; and, for a small number of people with specific allergies, it requires a quick conversation with a provider first.

Lined up side by side, the trade-off is heavily one-sided — but that last con is usually the biggest hesitation people have, so it’s worth walking through exactly what to expect.

The most common flu shot side effects are mild and short-lived: soreness or redness at the injection site, fatigue, a low-grade fever, a mild headache, or general muscle aches. These typically start within a day of getting the shot and are a sign your immune system is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do — building protection.

Most people feel completely normal within a day or two. A smaller number notice nothing beyond a sore arm. Serious reactions are rare; CDC and vaccine manufacturers monitor flu vaccine safety closely, and decades of data back up just how uncommon severe reactions actually are.

No. The standard injectable flu vaccine uses an inactivated virus; it cannot replicate or cause an active infection, so the shot itself can’t give you the flu. The mild, flu-like feeling some people notice afterward is your immune system responding to the vaccine, not an actual infection. It’s also flu season, so you could catch an unrelated cold or virus around the same time you get vaccinated—the timing is coincidental, not causal.

Most flu shot side effects resolve within one to two days. Arm soreness can occasionally linger a bit longer, but if it persists well beyond a couple of days or feels unusually severe, it’s worth checking in with a doctor—not because it’s expected, but because it’s always worth ruling anything else out.

Yes. The flu vaccine has one of the longest safety track records of any routine vaccine, with decades of CDC and FDA monitoring behind it. It contains inactivated virus particles or a single protein from the virus, never a live infectious virus, so it cannot cause influenza.

The main safety conversation worth having before you get one: if you have a severe egg allergy or have had a serious reaction to a flu vaccine in the past, tell your provider first. For nearly everyone else 6 months and older, the flu shot is considered safe, well-studied, and low-risk compared with the illness it protects against.

Everyone 6 months and older benefits from annual flu vaccination, but it matters most for a few groups:

• Adults 65 and older, whose immune systems naturally respond less strongly to standard vaccines — CityDoc offers a high-dose flu vaccine formulated specifically to produce a stronger immune response in this age group.
• Young children, especially those between 6 months and 5 years, who are more likely to be hospitalized from flu complications than older kids.
• Pregnant patients, since flu during pregnancy carries a higher risk of complications for both parent and baby, and the vaccine has decades of safety data in pregnancy specifically.
• Anyone managing a chronic condition like asthma, diabetes, or heart disease, where even a routine flu infection is more likely to trigger a serious flare-up or complication.

If you fall into one of these groups, the calculus leans even more heavily toward getting vaccinated — but the shot is recommended, safe, and available for essentially everyone 6 months and up.

Here’s the part that should make the decision easier: at CityDoc Urgent Care, getting a flu shot takes minutes. It’s $18 self-pay, or typically covered at no cost with insurance— and no appointment is required. Walk into any of our four DFW locations during business hours, Monday through Saturday 8 am to 8 pm or Sunday 9 am to 6 pm, or use Online Check-In to reserve a spot in advance.

Weigh it out: a few minutes, a sore arm for a day, versus meaningful protection against a virus that sends hundreds of thousands of people to the hospital every year. For the full breakdown on pricing and how walk-in access works, see our guide to CityDoc’s $18 flu shots — or just find the location nearest you below.