MESSAGE FROM THE VHA EXECUTIVE IN CHARGE

Today’s video is about the upcoming flu season.

We are already hard at work making sure we have enough flu vaccines for Veterans and our employees for this season. This will be the first season in a long time when we will have two major respiratory viruses in the community at the same time: the flu and COVID-19.

We can make our communities safer and our jobs easier by immunizing ourselves and as many Veterans as we can. We will begin distributing flu vaccine to VAMCs in mid-August; we will have 50 percent distribution by mid-September and 100 percent distribution by mid-October.

Dr. Beth Taylor, our Chief Nursing Officer, likes to say, “flu shots are PPE,” and that is a great way to think about it. We are preparing millions of doses of this PPE for our employees and Veterans. The safety of our team and of our Veterans continues to be our top priority during the pandemic and the upcoming flu season. You’ll see additional guidance and information over the coming weeks as we continue preparations.

Thank you for watching and have a good day.

Richard A. Stone, MD

Executive in Charge