Why Should You Get a Flu Shot?

It's simple.  Getting a flu shot can prevent you from getting the flu or lessen the severity if you do get the flu.  Moreover, getting vaccinated yourself can help protect those around you.  Flu vaccine prevents millions of illnesses and flu-related doctor’s visits each year. For example, the CDC estimates the overall burden of influenza (flu) for the 2022-2023 flu season was an estimated 31 million flu-related illnesses, 14 million flu-related medical visits, 360,000 flu-related hospitalizations, and 21,000 flu-related deaths. More reasons:

• During seasons when the flu vaccine viruses are similar to circulating flu viruses, flu vaccine has been shown to reduce the risk of having to go to the doctor with flu by 40 percent to 60 percent.
• Flu vaccination can reduce the risk of flu-associated hospitalization for children, working age adults, and older adults.
• In recent years, flu vaccines have reduced the risk of flu-associated hospitalizations among older adults on average by about 40%.
• Flu vaccination is an important preventive tool for people with chronic health conditions. Flu vaccination has been associated with lower rates of some cardiac events among people with heart disease, especially among those who had had a cardiac event in the past year.  Flu vaccination can reduce worsening and hospitalization for flu-related chronic lung disease, such as in persons with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).  Flu vaccination also has been shown in separate studies to be associated with reduced hospitalizations among people with diabetes and chronic disease.
• Flu vaccination helps protect women during and after pregnancy. Vaccination reduces the risk of flu-associated acute respiratory infection  in pregnant women by about one-half. A 2018 study that included influenza seasons from 2010-2016 showed that getting a flu shot reduced a pregnant woman’s risk of being hospitalized with flu by an average of 40 percent.
• A number of studies have shown that in addition to helping to protect pregnant women, a flu vaccine given during pregnancy helps protect the baby from flu for months after birth, when he or she is not old enough to be vaccinated.
• Flu vaccine can be lifesaving in children. A 2017 study was the first of its kind to show that flu vaccination can significantly reduce a child’s risk of dying from flu. A 2020 study found that during the 2018-2019 flu season, flu vaccination reduced flu-associated hospitalization by 41% and flu-associated emergency department visits by half among children (aged 6 months to 17 years old).​  A 2014 study showed that flu vaccine reduced children’s risk of flu-related pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission by 74% during flu seasons from 2010-2012.
• Flu vaccination has been shown in several studies to reduce severity of illness in people who get vaccinated but still get sick.
• On going studies continue to show that flu vaccination reduced deaths, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, ICU length of stay, and overall duration of hospitalization among hospitalized flu patients.  A 2018 study showed that among adults hospitalized with flu, vaccinated patients were 59 percent less likely to be admitted to the ICU than those who had not been vaccinated. Among adults in the ICU with flu, vaccinated patients on average spent 4 fewer days in the hospital than those who were not vaccinated.

Getting vaccinated yourself may also protect people around you, including those who are more vulnerable to serious flu illness, like babies and young children, older people, and people with certain chronic health conditions. Despite the many benefits offered by flu vaccination, only about half of Americans get an annual flu vaccine and flu continues to cause millions of illnesses, hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of deaths. Many more people could be protected from flu if more people got vaccinated.