By Blake Dodge – Bloomberg
U.S. health officials are trying to increase the rate of flu vaccinations this year after a severe outbreak last season killed a record number of children and led to spot shortages of antiviral medications like Tamiflu.
In a panel hosted by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 27, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams took a nasal vaccine – an effort, he said, to make flu prevention “go viral.” The lighthearted demonstration was accompanied by grim statistics from the 2017-18 flu season: 80,000 deaths overall, including 180 children.
“I’m tired of hearing people say, ‘Well, I didn’t get sick and I didn’t get the flu shot.’ Or, ‘I don’t like it, my arm hurts,’” said Adams. “Those 80,000 people who died last year from the flu, guess what? They got the flu from someone. So it’s critically important that we impress upon folks that it is not just for them. It’s their social responsibility to get vaccinated.”
The vaccine is expected to be more accurate this season, and influenza activity in the Southern Hemisphere has been unremarkable so far – a good sign for the U.S. and Canada. But health officials at the briefing said it was too early to make a prediction.
“I would get the vaccine now and you don’t have to worry about whether it’s a mild or a severe season,” said William Schaffner, NFID medical director.
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