Stanford Flu Crew Provides Free Vaccines to Community

This past year, Stanford Flu Crew offered cost-free influenza vaccinations to over 3500 community members in the Bay Area. From on-campus events to local libraries, churches, shelters, and farms, Flu Crew managed to access communities in a 200 mile radius over the course of 3 months and 20 events.

The Stanford Flu Crew began in 2001 when Dr. Walter Newman, a family physician and adjunct associate professor at Stanford Medical School, taught several first year medical students to give flu shots and took them to a local farm to provide to farm workers with vaccinations.

The program has expanded a great deal since then and relies on the time and energy of first-year medical students who volunteer to staff the vaccination events that take place on the campus and in the surrounding community. These pre-clinical students not only gain real-time experience and confidence in their procedure skills, but also engage their local community by providing an important, life-saving service.

Today, the Stanford Flu Crew is one of the largest and most dynamic influenza prevention programs of any medical school in the country. In addition to offering free vaccinations, Stanford Flu Crew’s mission is to increase awareness of the need to vaccinate annually for influenza, address misconceptions related to vaccinations, and educate others about proper hand-washing techniques and other methods to prevent the spread of infection altogether.