COVID boosters lagging behind flu vaccines: Gallup

Less than half of U.S. adults say they have gotten the annual flu shot this year and even less received the most recent COVID-19 booster shot, according to a new survey.

The Gallup survey, published Wednesday, found that 47 percent of adults said they got the flu shot and 29 percent received the newest COVID-19 booster. Another 20 percent of respondents said they still plan to get the updated booster shot — but have not yet — and about half, 51 percent, say they do not plan to get the updated COVID-19 vaccine.

“Americans seem to be heeding public health officials’ recommendations to get annual flu shots to a greater degree than they are complying with their advice to get the latest COVID-19 vaccine,” researchers wrote.

Over 70 percent of the survey’s respondents received previous versions of the vaccine, highlighting that the urgency felt by Americans to receive the COVID-19 vaccine was much higher when they first became available.

Broken down by age, the results show older Americans aged 65 and older are receiving the COVID booster and the flu shot at higher rates than younger Americans. Almost half, 46 percent of older respondents, have gotten the booster shot, and 68 percent said they had gotten the annual flu shot.

Whether people intend to get both the COVID-19 vaccine and the flu shot differs by party identification, but the COVID shot remains more polarized than the flu, the survey found.

Nearly half, 48 percent, of Democrats surveyed have received the updated COVID-19 shot, compared to 20 percent of independent voters and 10 percent of Republicans. Eighty-two percent of Republicans say they will not get the updated COVID shot.

Among the respondents who say they don’t have plans to get the updated COVID shot, 27 percent are people who say they already had the virus and believe they have antibodies and 24 percent have safety concerns about the vaccine.

Other concerns center on perception of the shot's effectiveness, whether they believe they will suffer serious symptoms if they contracted the virus and general distrust in vaccines.

The survey results also show that Americans are less concerned about catching COVID-19 and believe the coronavirus situation in the U.S. has gotten better. The poll did not ask respondents about their concern of catching the flu, Gallup noted.

The survey noted that while receiving the COVID-19 vaccine may be more divisive among Americans, rates of people who receive the flu shot may reflect that the procedure “is more of an established routine” than booster shots.

Gallup's survey was conducted between Nov. 30 and Dec. 7 with more than 6,000 adults responding.