Barely more than half of Minnesotans got a flu shot during the fall and winter of 2016-17, said a report released on Tuesday.
But the state’s 51.7 percent flu vaccination rate was the seventh-highest in the country, according to “Ready or Not? Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters and Bioterrorism,” a report from the nonprofit Trust for America’s Health.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a goal of 70 percent vaccination, noted John Auerbach, president and CEO of the trust, during a telephone news conference.
Public-health officials and medical associations uniformly recommend the flu vaccine as the best means to prevent and slow the spread of what can be a deadly disease.
“At AAP, we reiterate the simple truth that vaccines are safe, vaccines are effective and vaccines save lives,” said Dr. Karen Remley, CEO and executive vice president of the American Academy of Pediatrics during the news conference.
But the recommendation gets pushback from groups and individuals who fear possible side effects from the vaccination and argue that it’s often ineffective.
This fall, Essentia Health made the flu shot mandatory for its employees, volunteers and vendors as well as for students who learn in its facilities, with exceptions granted only for specific medical and religious reasons.
The health system claimed better than 99 percent compliance from its workforce and reported no more than 50 of its nearly 14,000 employees were fired over the issue. But the policy drew challenges from three of its unions.
Concerns about flu shots may be exacerbated by reports that this year’s vaccine is a relatively bad match for this year’s influenza. Citing a New England Journal of Medicine article, it was reported earlier this month that “this year’s vaccine is proving to be about 10 percent effective.”
But in a separate telephone interview, Dr. Andrew Thompson, an infectious-disease specialist at St. Luke’s hospital in Duluth, said that figure was drawn from results in Australia and might not be duplicated in the U.S. Also, it applied only to one strain of flu, the H3N2 type of influenza A, he said.
“You really can’t conclude that a vaccine has only a certain amount of effectiveness until the season’s over,” he said.
On average, flu vaccinations are only about 50 percent effective, Thompson said. But that level of success is considered reasonable for other preventive measures, he added.
“The flu shot isn’t perfect,” he said. “It might protect you half the time, but that’s about how well seat belts work.”
Pediatricians and other physicians need to engage in thoughtful conversations with patients “to counteract sometimes sensationalist news or what people hear from friends or from the internet,” Remley said during the news conference.
The “Ready or Not?” report ranked each state and the District of Columbia on the basis of its achievement across 10 categories, including the flu vaccination rate. Minnesota made the grade in seven of the 10 categories. Wisconsin, which had a 43.7 percent flu vaccination rate, achieved a passing score in only three of the categories.
Massachusetts and Rhode Island were the only states to meet the standard in nine of the categories. Alaska hit the mark in only two categories.
Much of the report focused on response to public health emergencies, such as the hurricanes in Texas, Louisiana and Florida this year and the wildfires in California.
Among other things, Auerbach called for a separate public health emergency fund to be used for “immediate surge funding” when an emergency occurs.
Too little time is spent preparing for the next disaster, Remley said.
“Investing in preparedness well before disaster strikes makes a real difference, and especially for infants and children,” she said. “Unfortunately, instead, all too often we find ourselves doing the opposite. After the sense of emergency dissipates, so does our attention to it.”
See the “Ready or Not?” report online at healthyamericans.org. Click on “Ready or Not? 2017.”
