Pennsylvania ranked No. 12 in the United States for the percentage of residents receiving an annual flu shot, according to a recent study.
The AdvisorSmith study estimated that an average of 52.1% of Pennsylvania residents received the flu shot annually between 2017 and 2020. The year with the highest percentage of flu vaccination was the 2019-2020 flu season, in which 56.1% of residents received the vaccine. Pennsylvania’s data are in line with a national trend of greater flu vaccination rates between 2017 and 2020.
Pennsylvania ranked above the average rate of state flu vaccination in each year between 2017 and 2020. The three-year national average was 47.6%, significantly lower than Pennsylvania’s 52.1%.
With a continued surge in COVID-19 cases around the country, including in Pennsylvania, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging all Americans six months or older to receive the flu shot, although there are "rare exceptions." Medical experts fear that health care systems will not have enough resources to treat the “twindemic” of increasing COVD-19 and flu cases, AdvisorSmith reported.
Penn Medicine has urged individuals to receive a flu shot in the face of a potential of a surge in both COVID-19 and flu cases this winter.
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