FAIRMONT – For those looking to protect people from catching a seasonal flu or cold via vaccines, there hasn’t been a shortage of demand.

United Hospital District (UHD) Infection Preventionist and Employee Health Nurse Tomarah Brand said they offer the same vaccines at the Fairmont clinic as they do in Blue Earth and Wells.

“We have the influenza vaccine every year,” Brand said. “We have the covid vaccine, and then we offer childhood vaccines like the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), varicella, tetanus, diptheria pertussis (Tdap), then also pneumococcal vaccines, shingles, hepatitis A and B, basically all of the recommended childhood vaccines and ones recommended for those 65 and older. We have offered the RSV vaccine for pregnancy, for those who are higher risk for that, and that’s offered for 65 and older.”

The most common vaccines Brand said people get are the flu and covid vaccines.

“We see people start asking for them, usually around September is when they’re offered,” she said. “That depends on availability, which this year there were no issues with availability. Those numbers are pretty steady with administration of those two in October and November, and sometimes in December, depending on our infection rates. Tight now, our rates of infection for both covid and influenza are pretty low.”

Brand said there used to be an estimated 75 to 90 percent flu vaccine coverage in Martin County. She said that has dropped, and she would love to see vaccination rates be higher.

“Every year I see a little bit more of a bump of more and more people getting it again,” Brand said. “That was reassuring.”

As for why the drop-off occurred, where she said some rural counties in Minnesota are reporting flu vaccine rates as low as 30 percent, she said covid had an impact.

“With the COVID vaccine coming out, some people thought it came out very quickly,” Brand said. “They were uncomfortable with it. They’d heard some information that made them leery of it. Though as a result, our flu rates have been going down. We’ve seen quite a few hospitalizations for flu and covid over the last couple of years. Those may have been prevented if more people were vaccinated.”

This season, Brand said they have seen a large amount of demand at UHD.

“We have a ton of people come in and get vaccines,” she said. “If you look at the schedule on any given day, there’s probably somebody coming in to get some sort of [vaccine], especially this time of year. This over 65 generation, a lot of them were around when measles was circulating. They got the mumps, rubella, things like that. So they typically are good at keeping up on their vaccines.”

By receiving a vaccine, Brand said there are benefits, even if one does end up getting sick.

“Vaccines are not 100 percent,” she said. “There are some that are very close to 100 percent. If, say, somebody gets their flu vaccine, but they still get the flu, hopefully their symptoms then would be less severe. They would not have complications of the flu, and then hopefully not be able to spread illness to other people.”

For those who have concerns or questions, Brand said they should schedule an appointment with a provider.

“If they have concerns about any vaccines, any side effects,” she said. “Is this right for them? Is it right for their child? Make an appointment and discuss it with a provider. They can give them non biased information, evidence based information. They can listen to any of their concerns, discuss that with them, go over risks and things like that to make them feel more comfortable and know what’s right.”

For more information on vaccinations, visit health.state.mn.us/people/immunize/index.html