page_title: Influenza vaccine
section_title: Acceptance
hierarchical_section_title: Influenza vaccine / History / Acceptance
caption_attribution_description: English: NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (Oct. 22, 2019) Hospital Corpsman Kenny Liu, from San Jose, assigned to USS Gerald R. Ford's (CVN 78) medical department, prepares a needle with a flu vaccination in the ship's hangar bay. Ford's medical department is vaccinating the entire crew against the flu virus in order to ensure the crew remains medically ready as the ship prepares to go out to sea. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Angel Thuy Jaskuloski)
context_page_description: Influenza vaccines, also known as flu shots or flu jabs, are vaccines that protect against infection by influenza viruses. New versions of the vaccines are developed twice a year, as the influenza virus rapidly changes. While their effectiveness varies from year to year, most provide modest to high protection against influenza. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that vaccination against influenza reduces sickness, medical visits, hospitalizations, and deaths. Immunized workers who do catch the flu, return to work half a day sooner on average. Vaccine effectiveness in those over 65 years old remains uncertain due to a lack of high quality research. Vaccinating children may protect those around them.
  The World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend yearly vaccination for nearly all people over the age of six months, especially those at high risk. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control also recommends yearly vaccination of high risk groups.
context_section_description: According to the CDC: "Influenza vaccination is the primary method for preventing influenza and its severe complications. [...] Vaccination is associated with reductions in influenza-related respiratory illness and physician visits among all age groups, hospitalization and death among persons at high risk, otitis media among children, and work absenteeism among adults. Although influenza vaccination levels increased substantially during the 1990s, further improvements in vaccine coverage levels are needed".
  The egg-based technology (still in use as of 2019) for producing influenza vaccine was created in the 1950s. In the US swine flu scare of 1976, President Gerald Ford was confronted with a potential swine flu pandemic. The vaccination program was rushed, yet plagued by delays and public relations problems. Meanwhile, maximum military containment efforts succeeded unexpectedly in confining the new strain to the single army base where it had originated. On that base, a number of soldiers fell severely ill, but only one died. The program was canceled after about 24% of the population had received vaccinations. An excess in deaths of twenty-five over normal annual levels as well as 400 excess hospitalizations, both from Guillain–Barré syndrome, were estimated to have occurred from the vaccination program itself, illustrating that the vaccine itself is not free of risks. The result has been cited to stoke lingering doubts about vaccination. In the end, however, even the maligned 1976 vaccine may have saved lives. A 2010 study found a significantly enhanced immune response against the 2009 pandemic H1N1 in study participants who had received vaccination against the swine flu in 1976.
caption: Preparation of the flu vaccine for sailors serving aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford
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