Baltimore doctor worries about vaccine fatigue with rise of flu hospitalizations

Doctors say this is the worst flu season in more than a decade. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the flu has killed 13,000 Americans, including 57 children, one of which is from Maryland, during this flu season.

While medical experts push for vaccinations, many people claim to have vaccine fatigue.

"I think some of us have gotten perhaps tired of 'get your shot, get your shot,'  and so we want to make sure that we don't forget about the importance of these vaccines, specifically for what we think are preventable illnesses," said Dr. Ashanti Woods, a Baltimore doctor.

Woods, a pediatrician at Mercy Medical Center, told WJZ that now is not the time to relax on vaccinations against potentially deadly illnesses. He says flu vaccination numbers are down this season.

"The number of adults and children being vaccinated against influenza, that number is down from what we're used to seeing and that should be alarming," Woods said.

No time to relax

Woods says that after the past five years of talking about vaccines -- from COVID-19 to RSV to the flu -- people may be relaxing at the wrong time.

According to the CDC, this flu season is one of the worst in 15 years, with 24 million Americans getting sick, at least 300,000 hospital visits, and hundreds of deaths.

"The flu, as many people are aware, symptoms include, fever, headache, stomach pain, and it can actually give you some gastrointestinal symptoms," Woods said. "But if you are immunocompromised, and to us, that means all younger children, you risk for severe diseases, such as respiratory distress, they can wind you up in the hospital." 

While many debate whether they should get a shot for themselves or their children, Dr. Woods says it's important to consider the whole family, especially for hard-working parents with sometimes multiple children living in their homes.

"It's actually quite disruptive when we get a call from school, that either of our children has what we think is flu or COVID, and then they have to stay out of school, which means we perhaps have to take off from work then at home it means we're kind of playing this game of Dodge kid of trying to not get that illness."

Stay at home if you are sick

Dr. Woods says to keep your child at home if they have a fever or a persistent sneeze or cough.

Woods also encourages vaccinations for children and those who are immunocompromised.