Pandemic fatigue may be why the flu is being downplayed. There is no clear explanation for why only 44% of people said they planned to get a flu shot. Camino Prada, a dermatologist from León, associate professor of preventive medicine and public health, PhD in applied research in health sciences, is part of the Spanish Flu Vaccine Observatory team that also includes Javier Prada, head of preventive medicine. Javier Castrodeza, Service Professor at the University of Valladolid and José Martínez Olmos, Professor at the School of Public Health of Andalusia.
A third study on Spanish society’s views on influenza vaccination is worrying professionals at the Observatory.Only 44% of Spaniards are willing to get a flu vaccine In the 2023-2024 campaign, the expressed wishes of people over 60 years old rose to 74%, “which will result in this group of people being unable to achieve public health goals.”
The majority (66.3%) believe the lack of motivation to get vaccinated is due to a lack of advice or prescriptions from medical staff, while a further 39.1% downplay influenza, compared with 23.2% in 2021 “Through this study, we found that willingness to get a flu vaccine has declined compared to the previous two years. The proportion has dropped from 50% to 44%, a drop of 5 percentage points from 49% in 2022. Willingness to get vaccinated among people over 60 years old There has also been a decrease, from 80% in the last event to 74% in this event.
The social responsibility to drive citizens to get vaccinated during the Covid-19 pandemic is now no longer a reason to go to a health center to get a flu shot, while the advice of medical staff remains a factor that makes people more motivated when it comes to getting a flu shot. Speaking of vaccinations.
“Only 15% of people say they have information about vaccination campaigns,” said Camino Prada, stressing that, as the study points out, the media remains the main source of information on influenza vaccination in Spanish society. GAD3, conducted with the support of CSL Seqirus, one of the world’s leaders in influenza vaccines, has already seen 2,206 participants, as health conditions normalize following the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Observatory report. Vaccine culture, society’s positive view of vaccines as a tool for protection and prevention of infectious respiratory diseases has once again decreased. “Research shows that while last year 23.9% of respondents said Covid-19 had made them more aware of the importance of vaccination, this year this number has plummeted to 5.9%”.
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“We must pay more attention to the advice of health professionals to increase the number of people vaccinated, because this is one of the main reasons why people lack motivation to get the flu vaccine,” said Camino Prada. “We see that, with the first two Compared with 2017, people’s willingness to get vaccinated has declined. “After the epidemic, the population seems to have reached a saturation point, and relaxation must be avoided. It seems like the importance of vaccines has been forgotten. “The flu is not a trivial matter, especially for those at high risk.”
A total of 2,206 people across Spain participated in the survey, which will expand the scope of the study to more provinces. “The intention is to scale up next year, increase the number of participants and release the data to the government so that it becomes another tool for us to detect possible failures in the vaccination campaign.”
Camino Prada is a dermatologist interested in public health “because it is a multidisciplinary discipline that takes action to prevent disease.”