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Lockdowns helped preserve final 12 months’s flu season traditionally delicate in each america and world wide, however U.S. officers worry a extra critical season this fall and winter, with unmasked individuals out and about much more, and almost half of adults in a brand new survey saying they’re unlikely to get a flu shot.
At a information briefing to launch the survey information on Thursday morning, prime well being specialists mentioned they had been significantly involved that, with the coronavirus nonetheless coursing across the nation, almost one in 4 individuals at greater threat for flu-related problems indicated they didn’t intend to get the flu vaccine.
Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, head of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, famous that whereas specialists didn’t but understand how severely the flu would hit america this fall, different respiratory infections had already returned, together with RSV, a standard reason behind pneumonia and bronchitis in infants and a critical risk to older adults. The C.D.C.’s newest weekly flu report exhibits that just one state, Wyoming, had reached a “average” degree of flu instances.
As a result of the flu was virtually nonexistent final 12 months, Dr. Walensky famous, individuals don’t have the protecting immunity they could have acquired if they’d gotten sick, and she or he urged that everybody age 6 months and older be vaccinated. “The Covid-19 pandemic is just not over, and the chance of each flu and Covid-19 circulating may put further pressure on hospitals and frontline well being care professionals,” she mentioned.
The survey was commissioned by the Nationwide Basis for Infectious Illnesses, a nonprofit group. Its medical director, Dr. William Schaffner, mentioned that general vulnerability to flu could possibly be greater this 12 months, “with relaxed Covid-19 mitigation methods, elevated journey and the reopening of faculties.”
For the survey, greater than 1,110 respondents 18 and older from all 50 states and the District of Columbia answered questions in mid-August that explored attitudes in regards to the flu; Covid-19; pneumococcal illness, which might trigger pneumonia, sepsis and meningitis; and vaccination intentions.
The solutions revealed a pressure between beliefs in regards to the worth of the flu vaccination and the intention to get one: 61 p.c of respondents agreed {that a} shot was the most effective safety in opposition to the flu, however 44 p.c mentioned they had been both not sure whether or not they would get one or didn’t intend to take action.
The coronavirus pandemic, nonetheless, has had a constructive impact on behaviors that would assist reduce the impression of the flu. Practically half of these surveyed mentioned that due to the pandemic, they had been extra prone to keep dwelling from work or faculty in the event that they had been sick, and 54 p.c mentioned they’d put on a masks at the very least generally in the course of the flu season.
However there have been racial disparities: 73 p.c of Black respondents and 62 p.c of Latinos mentioned they’d put on a masks throughout flu season, in contrast with solely 46 p.c of white respondents. Black and Latino respondents had been additionally extra prone to be apprehensive about being contaminated with Covid and the flu concurrently than white respondents.
Dr. Walensky mentioned that the flu vaccination price nationally had held regular over the 12 months earlier than, at about 52 p.c, however criticized what she known as a “disparity hole” in flu vaccination: 56 p.c for white individuals versus 43 p.c amongst Black individuals.
Patsy Stinchfield, a nurse practitioner at Youngsters’s Minnesota, a pediatric well being care system, and the president-elect of the infectious illness basis, mentioned that it was secure for individuals to get flu and Covid photographs — together with boosters — on the similar time.
Dr. Walensky additionally raised alarms a few decline within the flu vaccination charges amongst younger kids, to 59 p.c from 64 p.c the 12 months earlier than. Within the 2019-2020 season, she mentioned, 199 kids died from the flu, about 80 p.c of whom weren’t vaccinated.
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