Flu vaccination can keep you from getting sick with flu.
- Flu vaccine prevents millions of illnesses and flu-related doctor’s visits each year. “For example, during 2019-2020, the last flu season prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, flu vaccination prevented an estimated 7 million influenza illnesses, 3 million influenza-associated medical visits, 100,000 influenza-associated hospitalizations, and 7,000 influenza-associated deaths.”
- During seasons when flu vaccine viruses are similar to circulating flu viruses, flu vaccine has been shown to reduce the risk of having to go to the doctor with flu by 40 – 60%.
Flu vaccination can keep you out of the hospital.
- Flu vaccination prevents tens of thousands of hospitalizations each year. For example, during 2019-2020 flu vaccination prevented an estimated 100,000 flu-related hospitalizations.
Flu vaccination helps prevent the flu in people with chronic health conditions.
- Vaccination has been associated with lower rates of some cardiac events among people with heart disease, especially among those who had had a cardiac event in the past year.
- Flu vaccination also has been shown to be associated with reduced hospitalizations among people with diabetes and chronic lung disease.
Vaccination helps protect women during and after pregnancy.
- Vaccination reduces the risk of flu-associated acute respiratory infection in pregnant women by up to one-half.
- A 2018 study showed that getting a flu shot reduced a pregnant woman’s risk of being hospitalized with flu by an average of 40 percent.
- Getting vaccinated can also protect a baby after birth from flu. (Mom passes antibodies onto the developing baby during her pregnancy.)
- A number of studies have shown that in addition to helping to protect pregnant women, a flu vaccine given during pregnancy helps protect the baby from flu infection for several months after birth, when he or she is not old enough to be vaccinated.
- Those include a 2023 study showing that flu vaccination during pregnancy reduced the risk of flu in infants younger than 6 months by one-third and the risk of flu-related hospitalizations or emergency department visits among infants younger than 3 months by half.
Flu vaccination can save children’s lives.
- A 2022 study showed that flu vaccination reduced children’s risk of severe life-threatening influenza by 75%.
If you do get sick with the flu, flu vaccination has been shown in several studies to reduce its severity.
- A 2021 study showed that among adults hospitalized with flu, vaccinated patients had a 26% lower risk of intensive care unit (ICU) admission and a 31% lower risk of death from flu compared with those who were unvaccinated.
Getting vaccinated yourself may also protect people around you
…including those who are more at risk for serious complications from the flu, like babies and young children, older people and people with certain chronic health conditions.
Source: CDC Benefits of the Flu Vaccine