Americans More Likely To Get Flu Shot Than COVID-19 Vaccine: Poll

More Americans are likely to get their flu shot this year than receive the most recent COVID-19 jab, showing a stark change in how the pandemic-causing virus is viewed.

A survey from the National Foundation for Infectious Disease (NFID) found that 57% of American adults are likely to receive their flu shot this fall. This is compared to just 40% who answered that they will get this fall’s COVID booster.

While COVID-19 is still being linked to thousands of hospitalizations in the U.S. each week, the general fear of the virus has subsided among many Americans. The Florida Department of Health has also cast doubt on the weekly hospitalization figures published by federal officials this week, instead implying the real figures are much lower.

When it comes to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the survey also found that only 40% of adults 60 years or older — the age the new vaccines are approved for — plan to get vaccinated.

“The NFID data — which show complacency around vaccination against flu, COVID-19, RSV, …are concerning,” Patricia Stinchfield, RN, MS, president of the NFID, said in a statement. “These diseases can be serious, even in healthy children and adults, but the good news is that we now have prevention tools available to help protect people against severe illness and complications. We just need to use them.”

It is vaccine season in America, with shots for all three viruses now available. The fresh set of COVID-19 boosters is available across the U.S. after Pfizer and Moderna’s shots were approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) late in the summer.

However, some have had trouble getting the shots during the early weeks of their rollout. And some experts have also said that the latest shot may not be necessary for everyone. 

Flu shots are available as well, and have been since early summer, but CDC director Mandy Cohen, M.D., MPH, has repeatedly said she recommends Americans receive the shots in September or October.

The first-ever vaccines for RSV were also approved over the summer — with the FDA approving both GSK’s Arexvy and Pfizer’s Abrysvo for Americans 60 and up. Pregnant women can also receive Abrysvo late in pregnancy to pass on RSV antibodies to their newborns.