Vitals.com: Flu vaccination rates evenly split

LYNDHURST, N.J. — Despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending that most people get flu shots, many members of the public remain skeptical, according to a new survey by Vitals.com.



Vitals, a website that helps patients find doctors, asked users whether they had received a flu shot in the last 12 months. Of 1,678 respondents, 818 responded that they had not. Chief of pediatric infectious diseases and vice chairman Leonard Krilov at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., said "unfounded" skepticism of the shot accounted for the large number of people who had not received it, skepticism based on the belief among some that the vaccine can cause flu due to some of its side effects.



"The standard flu shot is not live," Krilov said. "You may get a little pain at the injection site, but you cannot get the flu from the vaccine."



According to the CDC, between 3,000 and 49,000 people die from the flu each year.

Interested in this topic? Sign up for our weekly Retail Health Provider e-newsletter.