Updated Oct. 18 with directions on declaring to UC Davis that you received a flu shot or that you are declining to get a shot. Staff, faculty and students have until Friday, Nov. 19, to get a shot or affirmatively decline it. In addition, this article has been clarified to indicate UC’s executive order allows discretion on nonpharmaceutical interventions such as face coverings that UC locations may require of employees and students who decline to get flu shots. At UC Davis, everyone who is not vaccinated against the flu is “strongly encouraged to wear face coverings on campus through the end of the flu season even if COVID-19 requirements are loosened.”

UC issued a systemwide executive order Friday (Oct. 8) requiring all students, staff, and faculty and other academic appointees to get vaccinated against influenza on or before Nov. 19 or affirmatively opt out by the same date.

“With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing, the potential confluence of infections from COVID-19 and influenza poses a threat to the health and safety of the UC community and the public at large,” officials said in a UCnet article.

The executive order allows discretion on nonpharmaceutical interventions such as face coverings that UC locations may require of employees and students who decline to get flu shots.

At UC Davis, staff, faculty and students who decline the flu vaccination are “strongly encouraged to wear face coverings on campus through the end of the flu season even if COVID-19 requirements are loosened,” according to the Flu Vaccination Information page on the Campus ready website.

Yolo County and UC Davis at this time, as a precaution against COVID-19, are requiring everyone to wear face coverings indoors, regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status.

Document or decline

Employees and students will follow the same procedures in Health-e-Messaging to document or decline flu shots.

To report you have been vaccinated:

• Click on “Medical Clearances” in the menu on the left-hand side of the page.
• Click the green “Update” button in the “Influenza Immunization” section.
• Enter the date you received your flu vaccine and select “Flu whole (Influenza-Seasonal)” in the drop-down menu. 
• Click “Done” and your information will be saved. You do not need to upload a copy of your flu vaccination record. 

To decline the flu shot:

• Click on “Messages” in the menu on the left-hand side of the page.
• Click on “New Message.”
• Select “Influenza (Flu) Declination.”
• Fill out and submit the form.

No copay for shot

The university’s employee and student health plans cover flu vaccination without copays. Although flu vaccination applies only to students, faculty, other academic appointees and staff who will learn, live or work on premises at a UC facility from Nov. 19 through the end of the flu season, all UC community members are strongly encouraged to receive a flu vaccination.

Influenza vaccinations have proven effective in reducing risk of flu-related hospitalizations and the most serious forms of the disease. With both influenza and SARS-CoV-2 viruses circulating at the same time, vaccination against both is needed to mitigate against overburdening health care systems as well as the threat to the health and safety of the UC community and the public at large.