Flu Figures

With H1N1 swine flu infections currently reported in 21 countries, vaccine manufacturers are waiting to see whether the U.S. and other national governments order full-scale vaccine production. If they do, how many Americans will be vaccinated, and will it be effective? 

According to a recent Harris Interactive poll, 40 percent of Americans reported getting a flu vaccine last year, slightly up from the 36 percent who reported doing so the year before. Men and women were equally likely to get a flu shot. Older people were more likely than younger people to have gotten a flu shot, with only 30 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds getting a shot compared to 61 percent of those 65 and older.  

Interestingly, those who got flu shots were just as likely to get the flu as those who did not: 18 percent of both groups reported getting the flu. This does not mean that the flu vaccinations do not work. Those who are more likely to get the flu may also have been more likely to get a shot. Harris’s data show that older people—who were most likely to get a flu shot—were also less likely to get the flu. Given that the data are self-reported, some people who said they got flu shots and then got the flu may have been mistaken. But the data may also hint at the difficulty of developing flu vaccines for viruses that can mutate rapidly. 

Source: Harris Interactive online survey, April 2009.