This year's free flu shot line is 30 April 1967: add 14 days for it to work, six months until it stops

The Dutch flu vaccination round starts every autumn, and this year the invitation arrives from your own doctor in October or November. The free line is drawn precisely: everyone aged 60 and over, and that includes anyone who turns 60 before 1 May of the following year, which this round means before 1 May 2027, so anyone born on or before 30 April 1967. Age is not the only route. Lung disease, a heart function problem, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, kidney disease, low immunity through illness or treatment, neurological and neuromuscular conditions, a BMI of 40 or more, dementia, a cochlear implant, an intellectual disability and living in a nursing home all bring the same free invitation. The advised window is mid-October to the end of November, because the body needs about two weeks to build enough antibodies and they last about six months.

• Put your own date in and the protected months fall out: injection date + 14 days is when protection starts, and injection date + about 6 months is when it ends. Flu is heaviest in the Netherlands from December to March. A shot on 15 October protects from 29 October until roughly mid-April and covers the whole season. A shot on 30 November only starts working on 14 December, leaving the first two weeks of December uncovered. The later inside the official window you go, the more of December you give away.
• A child under nine having a first flu shot needs two. The rule is explicit: under nine and never vaccinated before means a second injection four weeks later; under nine but vaccinated before means one; nine or older always means one. So the first date decides what happens six weeks out. First shot plus four weeks is the second shot, plus another two weeks for antibodies. Start on 15 October and you finish on 26 November; start on 30 November and you finish on 11 January, a month into the season.
• If you qualify but no letter comes, phone them yourself. The official wording is that someone in the target group who received no invitation should contact their own doctor or the doctor at their care institution. That matters most to people who moved here: a chronic condition diagnosed abroad does not exist in the system until it is written into a Dutch doctor's file, so no letter will be generated. Anyone who changed doctors within the last year should ask once as well.
• Outside the list but still want it? That is allowed, and you pay for it. The official text says someone under 60 with no medical indication can have the injection after talking it through with their doctor, at their own cost, and that the vaccine is available on prescription only, through a doctor, the GGD or a vaccination centre. The price is set by the pharmacy or the centre and no official figure is published, so ring for a quote before booking. Separately, anyone 22 weeks or more pregnant between 15 October and 1 March can be vaccinated at the consultatiebureau.

Hokimi field note: the vaccine is already at the practice, so there is no pharmacy trip first, and the injection goes into the upper arm, which is much easier in a top you can push up. Sources: source 1, source 2, checked on 2026-09-24.