Do People Taking Flu Vaccines Need Them the Most?

To get the flu vaccine or not to get the flu vaccine? This is a huge controversial question millions of Americans today ask themselves every year. There are many myths that come along with the topic of the flu vaccine that lead to people questioning the effectiveness of the medication. Safety for our families and loved ones is what we aim to achieve, but what are the pros and cons of this vaccine? What are the consequences and what are myths, but most importantly: what are the reasons we should get it in the first place? In this paper you will learn the many reasons for the flu vaccination and how it affects different populations beginning with children all the way to the elderly population. First of all, what is the flu

"Civilisation, the orderly world in which we live, is frail. We are skating on thin ice. There is a fear of a collective disaster. Terrorism, genocide, flu, tsunamis." Many people live in fear of the universally unimportant. We worry about the opinions of others, what we 're going to wear that day, if you'll get to work on time, etc. Very little time is put into thinking about the real threats all around us like disease or natural disasters, things we can't control. But there are ways we can prevent things like these, and one of them is by getting a flu shot. But there are ways we can prevent things like these, and one of them is by getting a flu shot. Even though people should be able to decide to get the flu shot on their own, I think we all should because there is alot of research going into vaccines and they spend months studying these viruses.

Social factors that can contribute to the development of the flu are income and education. People with limited income may not be able to afford healthy foods for their families. They also may be restricted in access to health care or may not have money for a doctor’s visit if they are ill. This affects access to preventative health screenings as well as immunizations for the flu. Education plays a role also. Uneducated people may not realize the importance of immunizing their family members. They may not understand that immunizations often prevent or reduce the severity of this illness.

As a result, the burden placed on the health care system is significantly reduced. Therefore, people at a high risk of contracting influenza should seriously consider being vaccinated. Evidence suggests that educating high-risk people about the influenza vaccine is worthwhile. For example, during the influenza season of 2000-2001, 70% of adults 65 years of age and older received the flu shot. This suggests

Last year, only twenty-six percent of eighteen to forty-nine year olds got the flu shot (Singh, 2014). With an average of 200,000 people hospitalized annually due to flu-related symptoms, these low vaccination rates are generating serious health risks among young adults all over the country (National Consumers League, 2013). This winter, at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., the average age of people hospitalized with influenza was 28.5 years old, and of those that ended up in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital, only two of the twenty-two had received the flu vaccination (Singh, 2014). The primary reason that young adults do not get the influenza vaccination is that they believe that they are invincible and influenza is not a serious illness (Singh, 2014). One in five Americans who do not receive the influenza vaccination claims that influenza is not a serious illness (National Consumers League, 2013). Of the Americans who do not get vaccinated, forty-five percent cited their good health as a rationale for bypassing vaccination (National Consumers League, 2013). This may be partly due to the targeted measures by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to increase vaccination rates among children and the elderly. In comparison to the twenty-six percent of young adults that were vaccinated, 56.6% of children (ages six months to seventeen years old) and 66.2% of seniors (ages 65 and older) were vaccinated. When targeted measures are used, they work. The problem

Demographics and control variable. Participants reported sex, age, U. S. citizenship, ethnicity, and educational grade level.

For the past ten years, we at Virginia Mason Medical Center have been implementing mandatory influenza vaccination. This is due to the flu vaccination being able to reduce flu illnesses and prevent flu-related hospitalizations. According to the Center for Control and Disease (CDC, 2014) during 2012-2013, an estimated 45% of the U.S population got vaccinated, helping to prevent an estimated 6.6 million flu-related illness, with 3.2 million flu-related medical visits, almost 80,000 hospitalizations and roughly $87 billion dollars in total economic burden. Influenza is extremely contagious and each year on an average 5%-20% of the U.S population get the flu with tens of thousands die from a flu-related illness. Therefore, many health cares setting along with Virginia Mason Medical Center is mandating all their healthcare workers to get the influenza vaccination. Consequently, making annual influenza vaccination requirement for healthcare workers a continuing and debatable health topic. The potential of getting the vaccination have great benefits to healthcare professionals, their patients, and their families by

As employees and health care works of well known organizations, we have an ethical and moral obligation to make decisions and choices that reflect the best interest of the health of our patients. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (2010), mandatory programs should be enforced for health professionals justifying the need for employees to receive the influenza vaccine. The Joint Commission believes that an estimated 80% or higher of influenza immunization rates are crucial for providing the necessary immunity needed to protect and reduce influenza infections or health-related illnesses (The American Academy of Pediatrics, 2010). Voluntary programs consist of having the vaccine readily available for employees for no cost, providing staff with education on influenza prevention, and having

Choosing to vaccinate or not vaccinate children has become a large topic of contention between parents and medical personnel. Rates of non-medical vaccine exemptions for children entering public school continue to increase across the country. This increase has coincided with a resurgence in outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, or VPDs (Lynfield, 2014, p.1). There are a variety of reasons why a family might apply for a non-medical exemption and the validity of these exemptions varies from state to state. Regardless of the justifiability of an exemption, growing numbers of non-vaccinated children entering school will increase the prevalence and mortality from VPDs (Lynfield, 2014, p.2).

Why do families refuse to receive the yearly flu shot when it is easy to access and keeps them healthy? Influenza, or the flu, is a critical illness that can lead up to hospitality or even death depending on the person's immune system (F). It is said that the first tracing of the flu was from the ancient Greek philosopher and physician Hippocrates (D). It is recommended by the CCD that anyone ages 6 months and older should receive the flu shot for protection against influenza (D). Despite opposition by anti-vaccine families, the flu vaccines should be mandatory because it helps prevent people from being sick, the shot does not allow people to give the flu to others as easily, and the flu vaccine is the fastest way to get rid of influenza.

The data will be analyzed to identify any demographic trends. Socioeconomic levels of the participants will vary from low to medium to high since the schools selected for this study are from various socioeconomic areas of the state. This group of participants is representative of the general population of Maryland, the schools from which the participants attend are all scattered throughout the state (rural, city, suburb, poor, middle, wealthy) to control for location differences as well as socioeconomic differences.

The Situation/Challenge: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of influenza (flu)-associated deaths in the United States ranges from a low of about 3,000 to a high of about 49,000, annually (CDC, 2010). Vulnerable populations—those with a compromised immune system, elderly, very young children, and critically ill—are especially susceptible to the influenza. (Poland, 2005). Pre-exposure vaccination is the most effective method of preventing influenza and influenza-related morbidity and mortality (Poland, 2005). However, flu vaccination is frequently contra-indicated for the vulnerable

In recent years encouragement to get flu shots has become a yearly mantra. Elderly, children six months to two years, health care workers and immune-deficient people are urged in the strongest terms to go to their doctors or clinics and get a flu shot. This group encompasses about 98 million people. In the fall of 2004 this was in the forefront of American and to some extent the Western World media with the shortage of this flu seasons vaccine. Current medical wisdom states that flu shots are safe, effective and prevent mortality. A recent study published by The Journal of the American Medicine Association (JAMA) has brought the current wisdom into question. On February 14, 2005 JAMA

Accessing healthcare services and vaccination are important ways individuals can prevent severe influenza illness. However, deep-seated inequalities in the US have render disadvantaged populations more vulnerable to influenza infection through structural or institutionalized barriers to the receipt of vaccination and antiviral treatment. 7 These barriers also make it difficult for disadvantaged populations to be aware of and utilize non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) - which include voluntary home quarantine, isolation and treatment of cases, social distancing, utilization of face masks, hand hygiene, and keeping children home from school - that are integral for preventing influenza outbreaks, especially when vaccines or antivirals are unavailable or ineffective in the case of a new pandemic strain. 8,9 In addition to being more vulnerable to infection, socioeconomically disadvantaged populations and marginalized racial/ethnic minorities are less likely to have access to health care, more likely

H1N1 Influenza (“Swine Flu”) is a flu pandemic that has recently spread all around the world. The Swine Flu began its massive spread through Mexico in April (2009) and by June, the World Health Organization raised the alert level to a full-blown pandemic across the globe. The virus has spread rapidly throughout the world. Luckily, the governments around the globe have offered an immunization flu shot against this pandemic that is available to some citizens at this present time. In Lawrence Gostin's “Swine Flu Vaccine: What Is Fair?” (2009), he explains his doubts for the Swine Flu vaccination by emphasizing how rich countries have a large advantage over poor countries in receiving the vaccine, how high authorities are hardly helping the