Spike in flu cases sparks plea over 'dire' rate of jabs

The number of Australians getting flu vaccinations has fallen to a 'dire' level, the experts say. Video via Australian Science Media Centre and AAP.

Transcript

00:00It's really important to understand why people don't vaccinate we can't keep second guessing

00:04the public and imagining why they're not vaccinating we've got to ask them and that'll

00:09help us fine-tune the best solutions to this problem and here's the problem so for the black

00:17line you see here and this is from 2020 to 2024 these are the 65 year and older age group national

00:24data from the National Centre for Immunisation Research showing 62% of people had a flu vaccine

00:32by the end of the flu season in 2024 and that had declined since 2022.

00:39For children that's another important group so that's the six-month to five-year-olds who are also

00:48have the vaccine recommended and it is free for them that group have a coverage rate of

00:5428% so our influenza vaccination rates in Australia are dire and they're not improving.

01:03Some countries in the northern hemisphere had a severe 2024-2025 influenza season for example the US

01:11although others for example China did not. In Australia we've seen increased influenza activity

01:18in all jurisdictions in early 2025 when compared to previous years.

01:25Despite the increased influenza activity we can't currently predict the severity of the upcoming

01:30season in Australia. This will be dependent on a range of factors which virus subtype becomes dominant

01:36or which strain becomes dominant for example. Influenza vaccines are now available and are the best way to reduce

01:43the likelihood of hospitalisation and GP visits associated with influenza infections.

01:50And finally some avian viruses continue to cause occasional infections in humans but there is no

01:56evidence of human-to-human spread. In an unpredictable kind of seasonality that has a few quirks about when it

02:04kicks off I think this unusual activity is related to behaviours rather than viruses emerging.

02:12So

02:17you