Kids’ Flu Vaccination Rates Continue to Plummet This Season

Dec. 12, 2024 — The big drop in child flu vaccination rates last year appears to not be a blip.

Just 37% of kids have gotten flu shots this year, according to new CDC data. That’s down 7 percentage points, from 44% of kids getting shots by this same time last year.

The data concerns health officials, especially since a record number of children died of flu-related causes last year.

Ultimately, 55% of kids got vaccinated against the flu during the 2023-2024 flu season, which was the lowest rate in 12 years, a CDC official told NBC News. Vaccination rates have fallen for a variety of childhood vaccines in recent years. The trend has been blamed on vaccine fatigue after the pandemic as well as misinformation about the safety of childhood shots.

Flu season is poised to pick up in the coming weeks. Rates of positive flu tests at hospitals and clinics have been trending upward. Several parts of the US are already reporting high rates of the potentially dangerous respiratory illness, including Louisiana, the District of Columbia, Georgia, and Arizona.

Last year’s flu season hit kids hard during the final 2 weeks of December, with a disproportionate rate of emergency room visits for flu among those ages 5-17 years old, CDC data shows. Kids who get flu shots are nearly half as likely to visit the ER or an urgent care clinic due to flu complications, a study released last year showed.

SOURCES:

CDC: “Weekly Flu Vaccination Dashboard, December 10, 2024,” “New Study Shows Flu Vaccination Cut Urgent Care and Emergency Department Visits and Hospitalizations in Kids by Nearly Half.”

NBC News: “Flu Shots Fall Among Kids, Hitting Their Lowest Point in Years.”