A federally funded study has found annual flu shots effective at protecting most infants, children and teenagers from the effects of respiratory illness.
Researchers sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found influenza vaccines released protective antibodies in over half of 15,728 minors treated for acute respiratory illness in the U.S. from 2015 to 2020.
Their analysis of people between 6 months and 17 years old estimated that at least one seasonal flu shot prevented emergency room visits and hospitalizations for 55.7% of all cases, regardless of their severity.
Published Friday in JAMA Network Open, the study noted that annual flu vaccines have failed to reach a federal benchmark of 70% of all children in recent years. As of February, the rates had fallen from 64% during the 2019-20 flu season to 48% in 2023-24.
“Increasing the understanding of vaccine effectiveness against levels of severe influenza in children could help increase uptake of influenza vaccination and strengthen vaccine policies globally,” the researchers wrote.
According to some public health experts not involved in the study, educating the public about vaccine effectiveness is the only way to prevent hundreds of children from dying of preventable influenza infections each year.
They said there are only few reasons, if any, to not vaccinate a child against influenza.
“Unfortunately, flu vaccination rates are far less than ideal this season due to increasing vaccine hesitancy,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “The anti-vaccine movement has grown in strength post-COVID, fueled by misinformation and lies.”
Recent reports have shown public faith in vaccinations waning since the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the CDC recommends an annual flu shot for all parents and children older than 6 months, a Gallup poll published in August found that just 69% of adults consider childhood vaccines important, down from 94% in 2001.
The polling company chalked up the decline to an increase in vaccine skepticism among Republicans and GOP-leaning independents since 2019.
“The changes in attitudes about childhood vaccines were presaged during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Jeffrey M. Jones, a Gallup senior editor, wrote in a summary of the findings.
Children’s Health Defense, an advocacy group that opposes mandatory vaccinations, blamed decreased faith in flu shots on the federal government fast-tracking COVID-19 vaccines and pushing to make them mandatory during the pandemic.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vax nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, co-founded Children’s Health Defense in 2007 and served as its chairman until departing in April 2023 to run for president.
Brian Hooker, the group’s chief scientific officer, supported Mr. Kennedy’s stand in an email: “I believe that the blatant lies told here have stoked a lack of trust over the entire vaccination schedule as more information has come to light regarding the woeful lack of safety testing of the vaccines therein and how they have never been assessed in their actual context. The recent flu shot data lauded by the CDC only enforces these contentions.”
