{"id":12572,"date":"2018-10-12T13:56:33","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T13:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/experts-urge-public-to-get-flu-shots-early-fight-misconceptions-about-vaccine\/"},"modified":"2019-08-16T15:04:32","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T15:04:32","slug":"experts-urge-public-to-get-flu-shots-early-fight-misconceptions-about-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/2018\/10\/experts-urge-public-to-get-flu-shots-early-fight-misconceptions-about-vaccine\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts urge public to get flu shots early, fight misconceptions about vaccine"},"content":{"rendered":"
The 2017-2018 flu season marked one of the worst the United States has faced in decades. That’s why health officials are urging the public to help avoid a repeat this fall and winter by getting vaccinated.<\/p>\n
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendation is that every person six months and older receive a flu shot by the end of October.<\/p>\n
Health officials estimate that last flu season more than 900,000 people<\/a> were hospitalized because of the illness \u2014 a record\u2014and 80,000<\/a>\u00a0people died from the flu, the highest total since 1976.<\/p>\n “Getting the flu shot is about community; it’s about everyone else around you,” said<\/a>\u00a0U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, M.D., MPH, during an event in Washington, D.C. last month. “Those 80,000 people who died last year from the flu\u2014guess what? They got the flu from someone. Someone passed it along to them.”<\/p>\n Last season, about 58 percent of children<\/a> ages 6 months to 17 years received a flu\u00a0vaccination. That’s well short of national public health goals of 80 percent. Even more concerning to officials: that rate is gradually declining. The results are devastating. During the previous flu season, health officials tallied 180 influenza deaths in children, most of whom were unvaccinated.<\/p>\n Health experts say the vaccination rate remains low, in part, because of misconceptions about the flu and the way the vaccine works.\u00a0TMC News\u00a0<\/em>spoke with\u00a0Isabel Valdez<\/a>, a Baylor College of Medicine physician assistant and instructor of family and community medicine, about the flu vaccine. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/p>\n