Sailors, civilian staff and contractors assigned to Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD) kicked-off flu season with a pandemic flu exercise Oct. 8.

Hospital corpsmen and Sailors who volunteered to help administer vaccinations manned shot stations in one of NMCSD’s wards to efficiently process patients as they received their vaccinations.

The exercise, which will run for three days, is aimed to vaccinate the hospital’s staff against contracting the influenza virus.

“We estimate that approximately 3,000 vaccinations will be administered this season,” said Tracy Lopez, NMCSD’s immunization program manager. “We provide the quadrivalent, inactive flu vaccine to hospital staff under the age of 65, and a high-dose, trivalent inactive vaccine for those over 65.”

According to the Center for Disease Control, a quadrivalent flu vaccine is designed to protect against four different flu viruses; two influenza A and two influenza B viruses.

“The flu exercise is about mission readiness,” said Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Brandon Williams, a preventative medicine technician assigned to NMCSD. “This is my third flu season at the hospital. My role in today’s exercise is to help stock vaccination trays for hospital corpsman administering shots, and keep the line flowing steadily.”

NMCSD’s command triad, the commanding officer, executive officer and command master chief, showed solidarity and received their vaccinations alongside Sailors and staff.

“Administering the flu shot command-wide through this exercise is yet another example of how we are taking care of our patients and taking care of each other,” said NMCSD’s commanding officer Capt. Bradford L. Smith.

NMCSD’s mission is to prepare service members to deploy in support of operational forces, deliver high quality healthcare services, and shape the future of military medicine through education, training and research. NMCSD employs more than 6,000 active duty military personnel, civilians and contractors in Southern California to provide patients with world-class care anytime, anywhere.

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