The 2,700 doses requested by health care providers within the county will be followed by about 7,500 injectable doses, he said. Additional doses then will become available to the general public upon request, Cheatham said.

“Hopefully by November, a person will be able to pick up their phone and say, ‘Hey, I want to get in and get a shot,’” he said.

Cheatham said about 60,000 doses have been requested by medical clinics within the county — enough doses to vaccinate about half the county. Having half of the county vaccinated could prevent the flu from becoming a serious issue in Michigan, he said.

“If we don’t get that high, the flu will sort of float around,” he said. “If we get over half, that will sort of stop. The wave starting to crash on Michigan will break.”

People in the age range of 18 to 24 years can be hit hard by the virus, making the vaccination especially important for undergraduate students, Cheatham said.

But no-preference sophomore Max Ieuter, who had the virus, said he would not pay for the vaccination.

“You can protect yourself in other ways, like washing your hands,” he said. “And it’s overrated. I had a fever for four days, but by day five I was feeling better.”

Psychology freshman Krista Bur said she would be willing to pay to be vaccinated, but that each person should decide for themselves whether the shot is necessary.

“I think students who get sick a lot should get the vaccine, but if people don’t ever get sick then don’t,” she said. “It’s like the regular flu.”

Cheatham said getting the vaccination is not necessarily something a person does for themselves, but rather a way to keep the flu from becoming something that threatens public health.

“A lot of people are thinking about this the wrong way, saying, ‘Why put an artificial substance in my body when I had the flu,’ but it’s not really about me,” he said.

“It’s, ‘maybe I passed it on to other people before my symptoms appeared, passed it onto someone else who was hit really hard.’”