Attitudes Of Older Adults Toward Getting the Seasonal Flu Vaccine And The Novel COVID-19 Vaccine During The 2020-2021 COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study
2021
Objective: Influenza is a preventable communicable illness
that has a significant impact on people of all ages. In 2018
it was estimated that 80,000 people died of influenza-related
illnesses. Infants and elderly people are among the most
vulnerable populations. In the 2018-2019 flu season, only
34.9% of individuals in these age groups received the influenza
vaccine [1]. Studies indicate that 7.52 million illnesses,
105,000 hospitalizations, and 6,300 deaths due to influenza
were avoided by the vaccine, during the 2019-2020 season [2].
However, national vaccination coverage is consistently lower
than 50 percent in adults, despite the widespread availability of
multiple influenza vaccines [3,4]. Moreover, a new study by the
National Infectious Diseases Foundation showed that over 40%
of U.S. Adults do not plan to get the flu shot during the 2020-
2021 season [5]. Vaccine hesitancy is linked, along with safety
issues, to public perceptions of low efficacy [6]. During the
2019-2020 influenza season, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) reported that 38 million infections,
405,000 hospitalizations, and 22,000 deaths were associated
with influenza. Older adults ≥65 years, alone, accounted for
43% of hospitalizations and 62% of deaths [2].
More recently the COVID-19 virus has quickly become a major
global threat infecting more than 92 million people worldwide and
causing almost 2 million deaths [7]. Facing these facts, and as an
effective COVID-19 vaccine is unlikely to be widely implemented
until mid or late 2021, the CDC stressed on the importance to be
vaccinated for seasonal influenza and prioritized the health care
workers and older adults, to help reduce the strain on healthcare
systems responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two newly experimented COVID-19 vaccines were just proven
to be more than 90% effective [8,9]. Compared to influenza,
the severity of COVID-19 infection indicates that the public
health benefit of corona virus vaccination may be much greater.
However, despite the need of an urgent vaccine, many people
seem to be hesitant about receiving it because of the perceived
rush in development and the undisclosed demographics of the trial
subjects, mainly elderly and people with co-morbidities. Surveys
of 493 and 2200 individuals showed that only 30% would agree to
be vaccinated against COVID-19 after availability [10].
In order to align with these efforts, the WHO had developed a
detailed framework for vaccine distribution and prioritization
to ensure equity and safety [11]. However, it remains unclear
if vaccine resistance can be surpassed by the unexpected
and drastic effects of COVID-19 in the United States. More
specifically, this season, the decision of getting the flu shot might
be affected by the coexistence of COVID 19 virus. Therefore,
it is necessary to foresee and minimize obstacles to COVID-19
and flu vaccines widespread administration especially among
the most vulnerable population of older adults.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the attitudes of
older adults regarding receiving the flu vaccine and the new
COVID-19 vaccines during the 2020-2021 flu season, and
to determine the effectiveness of an educational handout on
encouraging patients who declined receiving the flu vaccine to
reconsider their choice.
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