{"id":322325,"date":"2026-11-06T11:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T11:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/322325\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T11:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T11:16:07","slug":"philadelphia-opens-free-flu-covid-vaccine-clinics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/322325\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia opens free flu, COVID vaccine clinics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                    Health officials urge Philly residents to get vaccinated amid rise in cases, hospitalizations<\/p>\n<p>People do not need to make appointments and do not need to be existing patients at the centers to get the shots, which are free for Philadelphia residents, regardless of insurance status. People must provide proof of residency, which can include a utility bill in their name.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow is the time,\u201d said Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Palak Raval-Nelson. \u201cIf you get your flu shot and COVID vaccines now, you\u2019ll be protected for Thanksgiving and the rest of the holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Public health officials are urging people to get immunized this year after seeing a significant number of cases and hospitalizations during the last two winters. National data shows that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/fluvaxview\/dashboard\/index.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">less than half<\/a> of the population received a flu vaccine last year.<\/p>\n<p>To increase vaccine uptake, doctors say there needs to be more education and awareness about the safety of the shots, and they need to normalize expected side effects.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t get the flu from getting a flu shot,\u201d Gebreselassie said. \u201cMany people will have no side effects at all, but some people can experience mild temporary soreness and redness at the injection sites, fatigue, headache, muscle aches and low-grade fevers. But overall, flu vaccines are safe and effective.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When a person does get vaccinated, they are not only protecting themselves from severe disease, but are lessening the chances that they will spread large amounts of the virus to vulnerable people around them, said Raval-Nelson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat infant or that 72-year-old grandmother. It\u2019s the person going through chemotherapy. It\u2019s the person that has no immune system,\u201d she said. \u201cYour vaccine protects you, and that\u2019s great, but your vaccine protects them and everyone else around you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health officials urge Philly residents to get vaccinated amid rise in cases, hospitalizations People do not need to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[130680,28492,69,71,70,1394],"class_list":["post-322325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-covid-19-vaccines","tag-flu-shot","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-vaccination"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}