That is regardless of $675,000 spent on promoting the state’s free flu vaccination program.
McDougall mentioned Queenslanders can nonetheless obtain a free flu vaccination from greater than 2500 neighborhood immunisation suppliers throughout the state and urged anybody who hasn’t been vaccinated this yr to think about doing so.
Director of the Centre for Immunology and An infection Management Professor Kirsten Spann echoed McDougall’s recommendation, significantly with the Brisbane Ekka, an occasion that attracted greater than 340,000 guests final yr, quick approaching.
“The most effective factor that individuals can do is get a flu shot,” Spann mentioned.
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“For those who take a look at vaccine protection in Queensland from 15 to 50-year-olds, it’s solely 18 per cent – that’s actually, actually low. That’s not going to guard us as a neighborhood from getting contaminated.”
Spann mentioned Queensland’s low vaccination uptake mirrored wider developments, particularly a discount in vaccine confidence post-COVID.
“All of us realized by way of COVID that vaccines for these respiratory viruses, they could not essentially cease you getting contaminated, they’re not utterly bulletproof in relation to completely blocking transmission.
“However they lower how sick you’re feeling [and] if we will increase the degrees of vaccine protection, we’ll cut back hospital admissions.”
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For these anxious it’s too late to get vaccinated, or lulled by the upcoming change of season, Spann mentioned the flu season remains to be persevering with for an additional three months.
“It’s not too late to get vaccinated, that’s why Queensland Well being run this flu program till the tip of September,” she mentioned.
“We’re on an upward trajectory, which can most likely proceed by way of till the tip of winter, until we will get it beneath management by way of improved vaccination charges.”
For the final two years, Queensland Well being has run a clinic providing free influenza vaccines on the Ekka. The initiative won’t return this yr.
