December 6-12 marks National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW), an annual observance to remind everyone that there’s still time to get your flu vaccine if you haven’t already. Flu activity is still low, but it may increase as we head into the winter.
There are many reasons to get a flu vaccine if you haven’t yet.
- Flu vaccination can prevent flu illness, reduce the severity of flu illness and protect people at high risk from flu complications.
- Flu vaccination is especially important this season, as vaccination may help preserve medical resources and reduce the overall burden of respiratory illnesses on our health care system.
- Getting vaccinated also protects the people who are more vulnerable to serious flu complications, like pregnant women, children and people with underlying conditions like asthma, diabetes and heart disease.
- It takes about two weeks after flu vaccination for antibodies to develop in the body and provide protection against flu, so get vaccinated now to be protected this flu season.
There are more doses of flu vaccine available this season than ever before. For the 2020-2021 season, manufacturers have as already distributed 197.4 million doses of flu vaccine. Because of the record number of doses produced and distributed, administration is occurring over a longer period. As the final doses of flu vaccine come into market, it’s important that those doses are administered so that we are protecting as many people as possible against flu this season.
Encourage your patients, loved ones and community members to get a flu vaccine by sharing your own SleeveUp flu vaccination photo with a message on why you chose to get vaccinated this year. The more people vaccinated; the more people protected. There’s still time to get your flu vaccine.
Join @CDCFlu on Wednesday, December 9 at 11 AM CT in a coordinated tweetstorm by posting CDC suggested content (or your own) to collectively lift the message around the importance of flu vaccination. Learn more.