For the first time, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that all children between 6 months and 18 years of age get a flu shot, unless they have a serious egg allergy.
That should be easy. The supply of doses -- more than 143 million -- is ample for this season. FluMist, the nasal-spray alternative to injection, was made available last year for kids as young as 2, so no more wailing about needles.
In King County, most of the vaccines have arrived early, so no waiting until November, as in years past. Most flu-shot clinics are starting this month.
"Flu vaccine is the best way we have to protect against the flu," said Betsy Hubbard, the immunization clinical practice supervisor for Public Health -- Seattle & King County.
Add everyone up who should get a flu shot, and it's an unprecedented 261 million Americans who should get vaccinated. But far too few people heed the advice.
Of the 140 million doses produced last year, only 113 million were used.
The flu kills about 36,000 Americans a year and hospitalizes about 200,000, but a CDC survey released last week showed that many high-risk groups have had dismal rates of vaccination.
In Washington, only 34 percent of young adults with chronic illnesses said they got a flu shot, a trend that mirrors national numbers.
Rates for children were worse.
Statewide, one in six kids under 2 were vaccinated in 2006-07, compared with roughly one in five across the country.
"A lot of it is misinformation," said Joyce Lammert, chief of medicine for Virginia Mason Medical Center. "People think they'll get sick if they get a flu shot. Or they say, 'I never get sick; I don't need a flu shot.' "
Virginia Mason is believed to be the only hospital in the country that requires most of its employees to get a flu shot, and Lammert has heard all the excuses. For years, she has countered them with a campaign of "myth-busting."
Fifty percent of people who get infected are asymptomatic, she said, which means they can easily infect other people without knowing it.
She and other experts also say injected vaccines contain a killed virus that cannot cause illness. Inhaled vaccines contain a weakened live virus not likely to make people sick.
By last season, 99 percent of most of Virginia Mason's 5,000 workers were vaccinated. (Some nurses are exempted from the policy, because of union negotiations.)
"The culture has really changed here," Lammert said, adding that employees now anticipate the flu shots, which follow a kickoff campaign every fall involving a couple of Seahawks players and Seagals.
When it comes to children, the CDC had previously recommended flu shots for kids under 5 and those with chronic health conditions. But researchers have realized that school-age children have higher rates of flu than other age groups and are "great spreaders of disease," Hubbard said.
"If we can protect kids and keep them from spreading it to their elderly grandparents, or a parent with a chronic health condition, that's one more layer of protection," she said.
Other people who should be vaccinated include pregnant women, health care workers, adults 50 years and older and people who work or live with children under 5. Infants under 6 months should not be vaccinated.
In the Seattle area, people can now get flu shots at Public Health clinics, Target, Uwajimaya, Safeway, QFC, Costco, gyms, fire stations and certain voting booths on Election Day, through a Robert Wood Johnson-funded program called Vote & Vax.
For people disinclined to leave their car, Virginia Mason even offers drive-through clinics.
But many of the store clinics have age limitations, requiring that patients be at least 9 or so years old. MinuteClinic, however, which provides shots at QFCs, requires that children be at least 4 and weigh 33 pounds.
Last year, the flu-related deaths of two King County girls spurred hundreds of people to get vaccinated late in the season. Despite the deaths, the season was considered mild, in terms of number of cases, Hubbard said.
She said the mildness of the season should not dissuade people from getting vaccinated this year. "We never know what the flu season is like until we're in it," she said.
To see more of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, for online features, or to subscribe, go to http://seattlep-I.com.
??? 1998-2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All Rights Reserved.