Only 49% of US adults plan to be vaccinated and 58% are likely to wear masks

Remember when Scottish rock band Simple Minds sang “Don’t You Forget About Me?” It may have helped people forget about the flu and its dreadfulness. Mid-August survey of 1,005 US adults commissioned by the National Infectious Diseases Foundation (NFID) Only 49% actually planned to get the vaccine this fall. And 20% of those who didn’t plan to get vaccinated didn’t actually consider the flu a serious illness. It’s like believing that cinders falling from the sky aren’t a serious problem. That’s why a key message repeated from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and NFID experts at Tuesday’s 2022 Annual Flu and Pneumococcal Diseases Press Conference held by NFID in Bethesda, Maryland, is the flu. Don’t forget to catch the flu. Seriously, get your flu shot.

During the conference, Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said:As you can see in the following video, the number of people most at risk of developing severe flu illness

What kind of drops are you interested in? CDC FluVaxView Web Page Report shows that influenza vaccination coverage among adults 18 years and older in the United States during the 2020-2021 flu season was estimated at 50.2%. Such coverage levels are already well below the threshold of herd immunity required to actually stop transmission of the influenza virus within the population. It got worse during the 2018 flu season, dropping to 45.5%. According to the CDC Weekly Flu Vaccination DashboardAnd unlike golf scores or the number of times a ferret hits the groin with a golf club, low vaccination coverage is clearly not good.

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What is the reason for this decline in vaccination coverage? A large part of the reason may be the relatively low influenza activity during the last two winters.Each year, from 2010 to 2020, influenza An estimated 9 to 41 million illnesses, 140,000 to 710,000 hospitalizations, and 12,000 to 52,000 deaths only in the US. The CDC didn’t even make a forecast for the 2020-2021 flu season because of what it called “minimal flu activity.” And for the 2021-2022 flu season, that estimate has risen to 9 million illnesses, 100,000 hospitalizations and 5,000, but still well below the range of the previous decade. increase.

In Warrenski’s words, “The timing and severity of the past two flu seasons have been different than the typical flu season before the Covid-19 pandemic. It may be due to other changes in the virus.” In other words, Covid-19 precautions such as social distancing and the use of face masks are probably not effective against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) alone. It also helped prevent influenza virus infection.

Obviously, the lower the flu activity, the better. Unless that person is working as a lobbyist for the flu virus, you shouldn’t say, “It would be better if there were more flu cases.” However, this low flu activity may have created a false sense of security. Another panelist at the conference, William Schaffner, M.D., Ph.D., his director of NFID Medical and professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said after the conference: This may make people worry less about getting the flu vaccine. Schaffner also mentioned the issue of fatigue.

The NFID survey, conducted August 11-15, 2022, asked people who indicated they were not planning to get vaccinated this season why they were not. Of those who did not plan to get vaccinated, 41% of them said the flu vaccine was not very effective, even though numerous studies have shown that it can reduce the risk of flu-related hospitalization and death. I was thinking Influenza vaccine efficacy may vary from year to year depending on how closely the strain of virus in the vaccine matches the circulating strain, but each year vaccines offer more severe flu consequences and potential transmission. Schaffner stressed the need to provide at least some protection against the virus. He also added that so far, “the H3N2 virus in this season’s vaccine seems to be a good fit.”

The NFID survey also showed that 39% of those who do not get vaccinated are worried about potential side effects, despite the excellent safety of influenza vaccines over the past 50 years. . Nearly a quarter (24%) were concerned about catching the flu from the vaccine, but the virus in the vaccine is either completely inactivated or too weak to transmit, so in practice this is not the case. It can’t happen. Next, 28% claimed to have never had the flu, and 20% did not consider it a serious illness. as a result. Clearly, there is a gap between perception and scientific fact about influenza and influenza vaccines.

Again, the main concern right now is that the US could be heading into a bad flu season. This year, many are ditching Covid-19 precautions like social distancing and wearing face masks like a third-day cheesecake. In fact, what happened during the 2021-2022 flu season compared to the 2020-2021 flu season is that Covid-19 prevention such as face mask requirements Here’s what happened after the policy was eased in 2021. “However, the 2021-2022 flu season has seen more activity than previous seasons. It’s the latest season.” Yes, after almost no flu season in 2020-2021, the 2020-2021 flu season lasted over half a year. Do you think wearing a face mask makes no difference to the transmission of respiratory viruses such as the Covid-19 coronavirus and the flu virus?

When it comes to wearing face masks, 58% of respondents to the NFID survey indicated that they wear masks at least occasionally during flu season, and 40% said they would wear them during flu and Covid-19 activity. It says it will. He is 35% when in crowds and around large groups of people. “I am encouraged by the results of face masks,” Schaffner said.

Flu season tends to start after November, so it’s recommended that you get your flu shot before the end of October. Remember, getting vaccinated is not like wearing pants. Immunoprotection is not immediate, but it takes about two weeks after vaccination for full functioning. With so much going on around us, it’s easy to forget to get your flu vaccine. But even if you forget about the flu, the virus is unlikely to forget how to infect you.