United Regional advertised free drive-through flu shots with KFDX at Wichita Falls church

United Regional advertised free flu shots at a drive-through clinic set for Oct. 1 at Evangel Church in Wichita Falls, offered in partnership with KFDX TV-3, according to United Regional's event listing. The date fell inside the window that federal health officials call a suitable time for most people to get a seasonal shot.

The listing set the hours at 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the address at 3800 Barnett Road. Evangel Church gives that address as its own on its website, so the clinic was planned for Wichita Falls, not Gainesville. United Regional said its partnership with the television station would give community members flu vaccinations at no charge. The listing described the clinic as drive-through.

The listing documents a plan. A GvilleTX Newsroom review of primary sources found no record confirming that the clinic went ahead or showing how many people it served. None of those sources establishes a clinic on Oct. 8; United Regional's listing names Oct. 1.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says protective antibodies generally take about two weeks to form after a flu shot. The agency names September and October as suitable months for most people who need one dose per season.

United Regional has teamed with local television on free shots before. Its 2022 community health needs assessment reports a few hundred free drive-through vaccinations in September 2021 and again in October 2022, given with a local station. Its 2025 assessment records a few hundred more free shots for senior adults on Oct. 3, 2024, that time with KFDX.

Earlier public clinics in the region listed prices. Denton County's October 2021 announcement priced a standard-dose flu shot at $40 for privately insured residents, with a lower fee for uninsured adults. Wichita Falls advertised its own drive-through clinic for Oct. 10, 2015, and said residents could stay in their vehicles. The city listed flu-shot fees on a sliding scale tied to income and family size. It said the planned event would also test its readiness for a disaster or a flu pandemic.

The CDC rated the 2024-25 season high-severity, the first such season since 2017-18. The agency's preliminary estimates place most of that season's flu hospitalizations and deaths among people 65 and older. CDC models credit vaccination with preventing well over 100,000 hospitalizations nationwide that season. National estimates of that kind cannot measure what any single clinic accomplished.

CDC estimated childhood flu-vaccination coverage at 50.2% in 2024-25, down from 55.5% the season before. By the agency's estimate, children outside metropolitan areas trailed children in principal cities by a wide margin. The CDC figures are national and do not measure coverage in Cooke or Wichita counties.