Flu and COVID vaccination rates are "alarmingly low" in Massachusetts, state health official says
Fewer people in Massachusetts are getting their seasonal flu and COVID vaccinations as the number of respiratory infections in the state continues to rise.
"Certainly we're going to see more cases of influenza this year than we saw last year," said Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of the infectious diseases division at Mass General Brigham.
According to Department of Public Health data, about 34% of Massachusetts residents have received their flu shot this season, while only 11% got the COVID vaccine.
"We're really lagging"
"The vaccination numbers are really alarmingly low ... this is about the lowest we've been in the last five years," said Dr. Larry Madoff, who is the medical director of the department's bureau of infectious disease and laboratory sciences. "Massachusetts usually does pretty well in terms of flu vaccination, but we're not this year. We're really lagging."
The Centers for Disease Control's weekly report shows that flu activity in Massachusetts is very high, driven by a new strain known as subclade K. Dr. Kuritzkes says there is "a little bit of a mismatch" with the current vaccine and the virus that it's targeting.
"That doesn't mean the vaccine has no benefit," he said. "It may not stop you from catching the flu, but it still should prevent you from getting seriously ill."
"Vaccine fatigue"
Why aren't more people getting vaccinated? Dr. Madoff says he thinks there has been "a little bit of vaccine fatigue."
"We've been hearing a lot about vaccines," he said. "And we've also been hearing a lot of misinformation about vaccines. We hear it every year, but I think this year the volume of anti-vaccine rhetoric has really ramped up."
The doctors say it's not too late to get vaccinated, and flu season doesn't peak until later on in January or February.
COVID activity remains low and that's a good thing," Dr. Kuritzkes said. "That's typical that we see sort of one virus at a time, and flu is leading the pack right now, COVID is low. But if this is like most seasons, COVID will rise in the coming weeks.."
