Public Health Educational Resource 

In our society, we have mechanisms in place to increase childhood vaccination and even reminder systems to get pets vaccinated, but there is no parallel system in place for adults. Once we are out of the range of schools and pediatricians, we have few requirements for immunizations and seldom get reminders, even from our own physicians.

The persistently low adult vaccination rates are a direct reflection of the little attention that is given to adult vaccinations.  Among the 18-to-49-year-olds who make up the majority of the U.S. workforce, only 36% have received the seasonal influenza vaccination during the 2011-2012 flu season. Since adults make up the majority of the workforce population, this may have severe consequences.

These low rates will continue to have significant implications for productivity and the bottom line, across many different industries and sectors. Each infected employee may miss up to six days of work and need up to two weeks to make a full recovery. Overall, the flu has been estimated to cause more than 75 million lost working days in the U.S. each year, contributing to $16.3 billion in lost earnings.