The Flu Shot: Your First Step Towards Protection
Once patients have the access and motivation to get their flu shot, they will likely continue to do so in the future.
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Flu season is proving to be particularly severe this year. As of January 2025, the U.S. has already documented nine million cases of influenza and an increase in flu-related hospitalizations from previous years.
Getting vaccinated is the best way to prevent catching the flu. While the virus circulating this year, H3N2, is especially aggressive, a likely cause of the uptick in cases is under-immunization. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has set a goal to vaccinate 70% of the population, the flu vaccination rate for adults is currently 43%.
Public health experts aim to get as many people vaccinated as possible to slow the spread of infection. They use multiple outreach approaches, including targeted messaging and collaboration with schools, community centers, and health care providers. For those with health insurance, the Affordable Care Act requires most plans to cover flu vaccinations free of cost from an in-network provider.
Yunwei Gai used data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a nationally representative sample of health care costs and insurance coverage, to predict adults’ likelihood of getting vaccinated. The author collected records of over 180,000 survey respondents, including vaccination status, demographic information, and health data, such as socioeconomic status, general health, insurance status, infection history, and health care access.
The bar graph shows participants’ likelihood of getting a flu shot if they had previously received one and if they had previously been infected with influenza. If patients received a flu shot the previous year, they had over an 89% probability of getting vaccinated again. Previous vaccination is the best predictor of future vaccination, regardless of whether patients have been previously infected.
The author asserts that vaccination is habitual. Once patients have the access and motivation to get their flu shot, they will likely continue to do so in the future. Public health efforts can use tailored messaging through mainstream and social media, as well as trusted community members and health workers, to counter misinformation and encourage new patients to get vaccinated.
