In recognition of the beginning of flu season, CDC released two online reports and an MMWR on influenza vaccination coverage for the 2019-20 influenza season:

• Flu Vaccination Coverage, United States, 2019–20 Influenza Season
• Influenza Vaccination Coverage Among Health Care Personnel — United States, 2019–20 Influenza Season
• Influenza and Tdap Vaccination Coverage Among Pregnant Women — United States, April 2020

KEY FINDINGS

Key findings from these reports were shared at the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) influenza/pneumococcal news conference, held on Thursday, October 1, and include:

• CDC estimates from the 2019-2020 flu season show an overall increase in vaccination coverage among people age six months and older.
  • While flu vaccination has increased for children and adults overall, significant disparities continue, especially among adults.
  • Flu vaccination coverage among children age 6 months to 17 years was 63.8% for the 2019–2020 flu season, an increase from 62.6% in 2018–2019.
  • CDC estimates from the 2019-2020 flu season show that vaccination coverage increased slightly among adults from the previous season, yet disparities in flu vaccination coverage between White people and Black people and Hispanic people persisted.
  • Flu vaccination among adults rose to 48.4 percent, and as is seen each flu season, coverage was higher among older adults compared with younger adults.
  • For at least the last 10 flu seasons, there have been large differences in flu vaccination coverage between White adults compared to Black and Hispanic adults. Similar differences started to emerge among children in the 2019-2020 season.
    
    
• CDC estimates approximately 40 percent of pregnant women didn’t get a flu shot last season, leaving themselves and their babies more vulnerable to serious flu complications.
  • Overall, 61% of pregnant women reported receiving an influenza vaccination before or during pregnancy in the 2019-2020 flu season, an increase of 7.5 percentage points over the previous season.

• While overall coverage among health care workers remains stable, a new CDC survey shows that many health care professionals (HCP) still are not getting vaccinated. 1 out of 3 assistants and aides and long term care workers did not get a flu shot last season.
  • The overall coverage rate for healthcare personnel was 80.6% for the 2019-2020 season, which is similar to previous seasons, but a significant increase from about a decade ago (63.5% in 2010-2011).
  • Higher vaccination coverage was observed among Hispanic (82.7%) and white (82.6%) healthcare workers, and within work settings where employers required vaccination.

To learn more, check out this interactive report of flu coverage estimates (from July 2019 through May 2020) for each state, each Health and Human Services region, and the United States by age group, as well as trends in influenza vaccination from the 2010–11 through 2019–20 influenza seasons.