With the changing of the seasons, doctors are educating patients about how to prevent the flu.

They say the best way to do so is to get a flu shot - the earlier the better.

Each year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention creates a vaccine with the strains of flu it thinks will be active throughout flu season, which typically runs from October through May.

Dr. Michael Lanigan, of SUNY Downstate in Bay Ridge, says there is no good reason not to get the shot, despite rumors that the vaccine will actually get people sick.

"Everybody comes to me and says I got the vaccine and then I got sick. I assure you that was completely coincidental. The flu vaccine is a dead vaccine; it is not active so you cannot catch the flu from the vaccine," says Dr. Lanigan.