Ride-hail healthcare; UberHEALTH delivers $10 flu shots
Uber is now delivering flu shots to people in 35 cities across the United States, including San Francisco, Boston and New York; and you don’t even have to leave home. The cost is $10 for a “wellness pack”, but the nurse who arrives in an Uber car at your home or office can give flu shots to up to ten people at no additional cost. The wellness pack includes hand sanitiser, tissues, a tote bag, and a lollipop. Uber says it is not footing the bill for the nurses’ time or the flu shots. Instead, the company is partnering with Passport Health, a provider of travel medicines, and Epidemico, a Boston-based analytics start-up. Uber is paying for the delivery only. Uber’s Meghan Verena said the company has 10,000 flu shots available this year.

Our favorite CVS may just be a few blocks away, but that hasn't stopped us from procrastinating on getting our yearly flu shots. Thankfully, today we can get our shot to come to us. Last year, the UberHEALTH program offered one-day flu shots to customers in just a few cities (New York, Boston, Chicago, and D.C.). The program was so successful — with results even published in the letters of the Annals of Internal Medicine — that the company expanded this year's service to 35 cities in the U.S. Those with medical exemptions aside, we should definitely all be getting our flu shots . To get one with Uber, the company says you should first choose a comfortable place to receive the shot. Then, between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. in your city, you'll be able to select the UberHEALTH option in your app. When it arrives, you can purchase a $10 wellness pack (consisting of things like tissues, hand sanitizer, and a water bottle) and request a flu shot for up to 10 people from a registered nurse. Yes, if you head down to your local pharmacy with your handy insurance card, the flu shot will ( almost always ) be free. And yes, this might even take less time than Uber-beckoning, considering how popular the company expects its new shot service to be. And yes, we're skeptical of Uber's ability to effectively consider the well-being of adorable kittens and our own health. But if there is truly no other way for a busy professional like yourself to get your flu shot this year, we are glad Uber is coming to your rescue.