Federal health officials declared that in the last season, 48.6% of Americans were vaccinated against the flu. But, officials want at least 70% of people to get a flu shot by October for the coming season. The health officials recommend only injectable vaccines and not nasal spray vaccine for this season because now the vaccines have been modified to protect against the flu viruses.
Dr. Tom Price, secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department said that vaccination can help in preventing you or someone you love from becoming sick and missing school or work or being hospitalized or even dying from the flu. He also urged everyone from 6 months and older should get vaccinated as soon as the vaccine is available in their community as the hospitalization rate last season for influenza was nearly double that of the 2015-2016 season and next year is the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of Spanish flu which infected a half billion people and killed up to 5% of the world’s population.
As per the data released by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, it was found that there was a slight increase in the vaccination rates among people who are most vulnerable to the flu i.e. adults above 50 years. They also stated that the vaccination rate was 76.3% for the children aged between 6 months and 23 months. Vaccine manufacturers have projected that as many as 166 million doses of flu vaccine will be available nationally for the 2017-2018 season.