2020 Flu Goal
Public health officials are pushing to vaccinate 65% of American adults against the flu this influenza season – an immunization coverage rate about 25 percentage points higher than during a typical year."This fall nothing can be more important than to try to increase the American public's decision to embrace the flu vaccine with confidence," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert R. Redfield, MD, said in a recent interview. "This is a critical year for us to try to take flu as much off the table as we can."
To help meet the goal, the CDC ordered 9.3 million doses of the flu vaccine to be distributed to those who are uninsured. In a typical year, the CDC only orders and distributes a half-million doses.
Public health officials fear the implications of an overloaded health care system if flu and COVID-19 simultaneously send people for care. "When the health system gets overwhelmed, we find that with COVID-19, this is where the mortality seems to be the greatest," Doctor Redfield said.
Typically slightly less than 40% of adults get the flu vaccine. Those rates are even lower in some communities and the CDC is working to boost vaccination rates in African American, Latino and Native American communities. With studies showing that COVID-19 has hit communities of color harder than white communities, higher flu vaccination rates are especially important to help ease the disparities.