COVID-19 and flu shot clinic set for Thursday and Friday

Thursday and Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. Northern Montana Health Care’s COVID-19 flu clinic will be holding a drive-up vaccination clinic that will have the new bivalent COVID-19 booster available along with this year’s influenza vaccine and the novavax vaccine for people who have yet to have any COVID-19 shots and are 18 years or older.

Flu Clinic Director of Nursing Katie Kimberling said the clinic will be located in front of the hospital and her team will be ready with the paperwork so people can get both of their shots, wait a few minutes to monitor for reactions and be on their way as quickly as possible.

A post about the clinic asks that people have a completed registration form and to wear layers so their shoulders can be easily accessed.

Kimberling said they have access to the high-dosage flu vaccine for older people and no appointment is necessary.

“Anyone that wants to see us, come on in,” she said.

She said if the line is a little longer than expected at 6 p.m. they can stick around to get those last few people.

If people can’t make it, Kimberling said, they can always call the flu clinic to set up a time to get their shots.

While Kimberling and her colleagues are encouraging people to get vaccinated, the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be winding down into an endemic stage, and with that change comes what is likely to be a more serious flu season this fall and winter.

Local public health is urging people to get their vaccinations and boosters for both viruses so that the spread of both remains low, which is always what they want, even as the worst of the pandemic appears, at least for now, to be over.

Hill County hasn’t seen a death from COVID-19 in months, but the virus is still spreading throughout the area and still carries risk of long-term adverse health effects.

Hill County Public Health Director Kim Berg said in an interview earlier this month that the numbers her department is recording are much lower than previous points in the pandemic, a trend she hopes continues.

“Hoping and praying and keeping our fingers crossed that it stays that way,” Berg said.

Despite her happiness at the decrease in case numbers, she suspects much of it has to do with people testing less and not reporting when they are positive, opting to just stay home instead.

Berg said with students going back to school things may change and urged people to keep doing the day-to-day mitigation strategies that they’ve been doing for the past few years, frequently washing their hands, covering their mouths when they cough and staying home when they are ill.

The last of those pieces of advice, she said, is especially important, but she knows it can be a hard one to follow.

However, she said, the one best thing people can do to protect themselves against COVID-19 and influenza is to get vaccinated.

Berg said the health department has this year’s influenza vaccine and should have the high-dose version for older people soon.

The department also gained access to the bivalent booster, which is designed to protect against the main strain of the COVID virus as well as the highly contagious omicron variant, however, as of Tuesday had run out of doses, at least for the moment.

Havre’s Walmart and Gary Leo’s pharmacies still had the booster available as of Tuesday afternoon.

The new updated booster is usable by people who are otherwise up to date on their vaccine and booster shots, regardless of which vaccine they originally got, Pfizer, Moderna or Janssen and Janssen.

During 2020 and 2021 the area saw the virtual elimination of influenza cases as a result of the mitigation efforts people were engaging in to protect themselves and others from COVID-19, but with life returning to more-or-less normal, Berg said, this year is likely to see a significant rebound.

She said she doesn’t know if it will be a worse-than-typical year for influenza, but it’s almost certainly not going to be like the previous two years.

She said the department is going to be holding off-site clinics offering vaccinations to people, but anyone can call them and set up an appointment as well.

Berg said while the pandemic is not nearly as bad as it used to be COVID-19 still holds the risk of causing long-term health effects including serious lung damage, which influenza can also inflict.

She said influenza can also lead to more life-threatening issues like pneumonia or even heart attacks.

She said a disturbing number of people over the age of 40 who have heart attacks are found to have had influenza within the last month, so it can be really dangerous in some cases, and her department wants to do all it can to prevent as much illness as it can this year.

“When you can prevent it, it’s not acceptable to sit back and not try,” she said.

Despite the yearly worries of influenza, Berg said she’s happy her department has been afforded the opportunity to do a little bit less COVID-related work day to day, which has allowed them to focus more on their typical public health work, much of what was invisible pre-pandemic.

“It feels pretty refreshing actually, getting back to those normal public health things that people didn’t really realize that we were doing,” she said.