Influenza vaccination is lower among children and adults than it was a year prior, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a new update.
Coverage among adults is about three percentage points lower as of Oct. 14 than the same time last year, the CDC said in the update on Nov. 27. Just 22 percent of adults received an influenza vaccine, compared to 25.2 percent in mid-October 2022.
Coverage among children is lagging by about four percentage points as of Nov. 4 compared to the same time a year prior. It’s down to 32.6 percent from 36.5 percent. The 2022 coverage was already down about six percentage points from the two seasons before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coverage was slightly down among pregnant women as well. Coverage was at 29 percent at the end of October, compared to 29.8 percent at the same time in 2022 and compared to 45.4 percent at the end of October 2019.
Influenza season starts in the fall and goes into the following year. This season, for example, would be the 2023-24 season.
In the 2022-23 season, 57.4 percent of children ended up receiving at least one influenza vaccine dose, the CDC reported previously. About 47 percent of adults received at least one dose.
Overall, only a third of Americans have received an influenza shot so far this season, according to the CDC.
“More of the American public is waking up to the lack of effectiveness of the influenza vaccine as well as the possibility of vaccine injury,” Brian Hooker, chief scientific officer for the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, told The Epoch Times via email.
Mr. Hooker said that marketing messages for vaccinations regularly overstate the benefits and downplay the risks.
Side effects reported after influenza vaccination include headaches, fever, and blood disorders.
Most influenza vaccinations are administered historically in October, and receiving a vaccine that month is ideal, the CDC said.
“The agency continues to recommend flu vaccination as long as influenza viruses are circulating,” the agency said. “With the flu season just getting started, activity is expected to continue for weeks. Anyone who has not gotten a flu vaccine so far this season, should get vaccinated now.”
The benefits of vaccination include reducing the risk of becoming ill with influenza, also known as the flu, and making the illness milder if one does become sick despite vaccination, the CDC said.
The agency also claimed that vaccination “may also help protect people around you.”
The CDC did not respond when asked for evidence to support its statements in favor of vaccination.
The CDC currently recommends nearly all Americans aged 6 months and older receive an influenza vaccine each year.
Vaccinations are lagging at the same time that influenza cases and hospitalizations are rising across the United States, according to the CDC. The agency’s activity reports are based on data from hospitals.
The influenza vaccines are reformulated each year to target circulating variants. No clinical trials are run. Effectiveness can vary widely.
Effectiveness was estimated by comparing the patients by vaccination status.
Linda Wastila, director of research for the University of Maryland’s Peter Lamy Center on Drug Therapy and Aging, told The Epoch Times that the claims of the 40 percent effectiveness were a “bit of a stretch” given that actual reasons for admission were not controlled for, with patients possibly being admitted for non-influenza reasons.
No preliminary effectiveness estimates appear to be available yet for this season’s formulation.
“Ultimately, we need a supraseasonal vaccine, or a vaccine that covers a large subset of influenza viruses,” Dr. Arnold Monto, professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, and his coauthors said in a 2022 paper. “The overall situation reinforces the need for a supraseasonal vaccine that has greater breadth and durability of protection,” they wrote.
Because of the transient effectiveness, researchers in the United States and elsewhere have been working on developing better influenza vaccines.
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