Mahoning County offers free nasal spray flu vaccine

AUSTINTOWN — Free nasal-spray flu vaccine is available from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 30 at the Mahoning County District Board of Health, 50 Westchester Drive.

This is a huge after-Christmas present for healthy county residents from the age of 2 to 49, who are not pregnant, who don’t like shots, but still want to protect themselves against influenza, said Matthew A. Stefanak, county health commissioner.

The nasal spray vaccine is available to eligible people regardless of income, he said.

Stefanak said he thinks there are many people who don’t protect themselves against the flu because they don’t like needles, or the temporary soreness that can occur at the site of an injection, or the low grade fever that sometimes occurs a day or so after getting a shot.

Here is their opportunity for protection, the health commissioner said. Even if they can’t make the walk-in clinic on Dec. 30, people can call the health department at (330) 270-2855 for an appointment, Stefanak said.

The nasal spray vaccine manufacturer, MedImmune, donated doses of its product, FluMist, to public health departments across the nation, Stefanak said.

“MedImmune probably overestimated the need for the vaccine. We’re grateful that they didn’t just throw it out. It gives us the ability to offer it to our community at no cost,” he said.

Read more in Sunday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com