MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Residents, pharmacies, and doctors in southeast Wisconsin are gearing up for flu season.

Lisa Schnell was at the Northshore Pharmacy on Friday afternoon getting her flu shot.

“I’m a schoolteacher and I want to get ahead of the flu season,” Schnell said. “So that I can be there for them because it’s important for teachers to be at school.”

The Northshore pharmacy is also getting ready, expecting flu cases to go up when December rolls around.

“Trying to keep as much staffing as we can, again flu shots are a really big part of keeping people safe and healthy,” Pharmacy Manager David Drobac said.

Medical College of Wisconsin Infectious Disease Physician Dr. Mary Beth Graham says flu cases are relatively low across the country and in Wisconsin at the moment.

Graham says there is a flu variant spreading in the UK and Japan that might challenge the current vaccines here at home.

“What is concerning right now is what exactly is going to happen with our flu season because there is a variant circulating in the UK and Japan,” Graham said. “Not exactly a great match for the vaccine that we’ve got, it’s not that it’s not a match, it's just it’s just not a great match.”

Graham says it is unknown what the variant would do if it reached the United States, but regardless, it’s important to get your flu shot.

“We don’t know, we don’t have a crystal ball,” Graham said. “What we still would encourage people to do is to get their flu vaccine.”