The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Preparing for worst, states mount major flu shot drives
Experts worry public’s efforts to stay home may hinder crucial vaccine.
WASHINGTON — If the United States has even a typical flu season that collides with a COVID19 flare-up, the resulting public health nightmare could swamp the nation’s already strained health system.
This year’s flu season could be milder than usual because of social distancing. And more Americans could decide to get a flu shot because of heightened health awareness spurred by the novel coronavirus.
But it’s also possible that fewer people will be willing to go into a public setting to get a shot and flu season will come roaring in by late October.
“We are more concerned than usual — if that’s possible — that everyone gets a flu shot this year,” said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Every year, millions of Americans catch the flu and miss school and work, hundreds of thousands are hospitalized and tens of thousands die. If that isn’t reason enough for everyone to get a flu shot, Schaffner said, this year there are even more reasons.
Since the mid-1940s, public health officials have tried every year to ensure the entire U.S. population 6 months and older get vaccinated. And every year, only half do.
State and local health agencies want this year to be different.
“We’re doing more than we’ve ever done to reach folks who don’t ordinarily get vaccinated. That includes essential workers, health care workers and Black and Hispanic people. We haven’t been where we needed to be in those communities in the past,” said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers.
This year, every state is launching some type of program to address those longstanding disparities in the distribution of flu shots. “We really have not had the resources to do that before,” Hannan said.
Armed with 9 million free flu shots acquired by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this year — compared with 500,000 free shots in a typical year — and $140 million in additional flu vaccination funding from Congress, states are taking extraordinary measures to get people inoculated. Here are some examples:
In August, Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker mandated all child care attendees and students, ages 6 months to 30 years, be vaccinated as a requirement for entering school or day care. Some parent groups fiercely oppose the first-of-itskind ruling, but Baker has not backed down.
Washington state is setting up drive-thru flu vaccination clinics to make getting a shot easier and safer for people who may be fearful of potential COVID-19 exposure from going into a doctor’s office or pharmacy.
Rhode Island is using mobile units to bring flu shots to people in medically underserved communities who may not own cars. The state is also working with homeless shelters, needle exchanges, faith-based organizations and community health clinics to host mass vaccination clinics.
Nevada is hiring community health workers to help educate people in underserved Black and Hispanic communities where flu vaccination rates historically have been low. The effort includes a message, in Spanish and English, that getting a flu shot protects not only you, but also your loved ones and your community.
Oregon is sending contract nurses and flu vaccines to nursing homes, adult foster care programs, assisted living facilities and senior disability programs to vaccinate staff, residents and families.
During a televised news conference Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer received a flu shot, and urged residents to do the same. “It’s more important than ever for Michiganders everywhere to get your flu vaccine,” she wrote in a statement. “Preventing the flu will help us save lives and preserve the health care resources we need to continue fighting COVID-19.”
In Arizona, the Medicaid agency boosted payments to doctors for providing flu shots and enabled pharmacists to administer them to enrolled children. The low-income health agency is offering each enrollee a $10 gift card for getting a flu shot.
At the federal level, the Department of Health and Human Services expanded pharmacists’ authority to provide flu shots, allowing them for the first time to vaccinate children ages 3 through 18.
On top of those extraordinary flu efforts, the CDC notified state public health agencies this month they need to be ready to deliver COVID-19 vaccines as early as Nov. 1 — though many medical experts don’t expect a vaccine that soon.