Yet, as viruses run rampant this winter, too many Americans are neglecting to get flu shots, one of the easiest ways boost protection against severe infection, especially for children.
According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only about 43% of eligible children had received the flu vaccine as of Jan. 4. That’s far short of the 70% target set by the Department of Health and Human Services, and a continuation of a downward trend from the more than 56% who had been vaccinated by this time of year before the Covid pandemic.The flu can be deadly for kids, and it’s not too late to improve those numbers this season. Public health officials should also be thinking ahead about how to do better next year.
Last year, at least 207 US children died from the flu, exceeding the grim record set during the 2019-2020 flu season. Most of those children were old enough to be vaccinated. Yet, of the kids who were eligible and died, some 80% hadn’t been vaccinated.
It’s not just about the kids. Vaccination helps protect the people around them — like grandparents, who, because of their age, are at greater risk of being hospitalized or dying from the illness.
So why are so many skipping this valuable prevention tool? Understanding the decrease in vaccination rates is a work in progress. But pediatricians and infectious disease experts suspect a few things are at play. Everyone immediately points to the broader issue of vaccine hesitancy in the US and the overall decline in childhood vaccinations. While that certainly could play a role, convincing people of the value of the flu vaccine has always been tricky. It’s hard to sell people on a shot that doesn’t always prevent infections. Sometimes, the vaccine is a mismatch for the influenza strains dominating a given season.But they’re missing the bigger picture. Even an imperfect vaccine can prevent the flu and blunt the virus’s impact on those who get sick. The CDC estimates that last year’s flu vaccine prevented 9.8 million people from getting sick, prevented 4.8 million doctor’s visits and 120,000 hospitalizations, and spared 7,900 deaths.The CDC has tried to reframe that perception of a so-so vaccine by launching a “Wild to Mild” campaign that emphasizes the vaccine’s ability to “tame” the virus. While the message is appreciated (and has been paired with the agency’s typical vast network of public health partners trying to amplify it and get shots in arms), the data suggest it needs more time to sink in. The next administration must continue working to shift the public’s mindset about the vaccine’s value.
But even those who understand the importance of the vaccine can face obstacles.
“Convenience matters,” says Sean O’Leary, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at the University of Colorado who studies barriers to vaccination. Surveys show a sizable gap between parents who say they will probably get their child vaccinated and actual shots in arms. “What that tells me is that if influenza vaccination were more convenient, we’d have a lot more kids vaccinated.”
Anecdotally, experts say there also seems to be less of a push this year to offer community- and school-based clinics that make it easy for families to get vaccinated together and are especially effective at capturing kids eligible for free vaccines.
“We know that primary care practices are stretched pretty thin,” O’Leary says. Pediatricians’ offices are understaffed and operating on razor-thin margins, meaning the flu shot clinics that in years past would have been offered evenings and weekends might have fallen by the wayside this year. If data backs up what doctors are noticing, public health officials must start working to figure out how these mass vaccination efforts can be reinvigorated for next season.
Parents should also know it’s not too late to get their kids (or themselves) caught up. “If you haven’t done it, go do it,” says Nicole Iovine, chief epidemiologist at University of Florida Health in Gainesville. While flu cases appear to be declining in the state, Iovine notes that the flu season stretches into spring and sometimes ratchets back up.
Vaccination is worthwhile, even for children who have already had the flu. Different strains can dominate at various times of the season. Last year, pediatric deaths were nearly evenly divided between influenza A and B strains.
So many of these deaths are avoidable. It’s clear parents need help — both in understanding the importance of these shots and making access to them as easy as possible.
