NACDS kicks off flu vaccine awareness campaign
With the flu season rapidly approaching and co-circulating with COVID-19, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores is kicking off a campaign that stresses that flu vaccinations are essential to protect public health and to prevent an overrun of the healthcare system.
NACDS has released English and Spanish video ads designed to spread that message. An online toolkit is available to make it easy for patient groups, allied healthcare associations, businesses, government, and others to sign up as partners and to use the ads, polling data, social media resources and more. NACDS also is spreading the word through national satellite media tours.
“Adding to the challenge of defeating COVID-19 is a flu season that is rapidly approaching and presenting the possibility of a two-front public health war,” said Steve Anderson, NACDS president and CEO. “We need to call on Americans to do what they can right now to protect themselves and to protect their loved ones, and getting their flu vaccinations is a vital part of that. Flu vaccinations are safe, effective and easy to get, and they are available for free under many insurance plans. Let’s beat the flu together, and pharmacies also will be there to defeat COVID-19 when those vaccinations are available.”
“All healthcare professionals, including pharmacists, have an important role to play in encouraging everyone age 6 months and older to get vaccinated each year against flu,” said Marla Dalton, executive director and CEO of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. “Flu vaccination is especially important this year to help protect individuals and prevent additional strain on an already overburdened U.S. healthcare system.”
“Each year, influenza in the United States causes millions of illnesses, hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of deaths,” said Judy Monroe, CDC Foundation president and CEO. “When you add those numbers into illnesses and hospitalizations from COVID-19, which will be co-circulating with the flu, it provides a potentially daunting situation for our health and public health systems. Everyone should get a flu vaccination to protect themselves and others from this dangerous threat.”
A recent poll commissioned by NACDS that was conducted by Morning Consult found that while two-thirds of adults (67%) say getting a flu vaccination is important to protecting health right now, this is shy of the percentage of those who indicate the importance of wearing a mask (86%), washing hands (93%), physical distancing (89%), and staying home when sick (93%).
NACDS will announce additional aspects of its flu vaccination awareness campaign in the coming days.