(, Sinclair B., McConnell M., Michelson M. (, Thompson W., Shay D., Weintraub E., Brammer L., Bridges C., Cox N. et al. For example, among adults 18–49 years old, vaccination coverage in the 2012–2013 flu season was only ∼31% (CDC, 2013).

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That rate has steadily increased for more than a decade. In its latest data, the CDC found that only about 44 percent of African-Americans and Hispanics older than 6 months of age were vaccinated against the flu last year.

This suggestion is based on the premise that interacting with an actual person or seeing somebody talking on a TV or computer screen is more vivid and memorable than reading or hearing information couched in numbers and statistics.

People with an egg allergy might avoid getting the vaccine because viruses for the flu shot are grown in eggs. When it comes to marriage and divorce, people significantly underestimate the likelihood that their own marriage will end in divorce (Fowers et al., 2001). The best way to prevent the flu is by getting vaccinated each year.

People over the age of 65 are encouraged to get a high-dose flu vaccine that contains four times the amount of antigen as the standard inoculation. (, Molinari N., Ortega-Sanchez I., Messonnier M., Thompson W., Wortley P., Weintraub E. et al. Two of the strains that dominated the Southern Hemisphere, and are therefore likely to strike the United States, are not included in this year’s flu….

Almost 75 percent of babies between 6 months and 23 months of age were vaccinated at least once against the flu last year. “Why take a chance that this is the year that your choice not to get your child vaccinated because you heard it was a mild season? However, flu shot side effects do include sore muscles, fatigue and fever.

An important and robust finding from recent research is loss aversion: people dislike the loss of something more than they like gaining it (Kahneman, 2011).

people whose immune system has already been weakened by other causes. the context in which choices are made (Thaler and Sunstein, 2008). Search for other works by this author on: Department of Economics, New York University, New York, NY, USA, Attention, intentions and follow-through in preventive health behavior: field experimental evidence on flu vaccination, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Flu Vaccination Coverage, United States, 2012-13 Influenza Season, Opting in versus opting out of influenza vaccination, Journal of the American Medical Association, Theoretical models and strategies for improving disease management by patients, The impact of a celebrity promotional campaign on the use of colon cancer screening: the Katie Couric effect, Nudges or mandates? For example, people have a tendency to want to see patterns, even in random sequences where orderly patterns do not exist (Kahneman, 2011). For people who recognize the benefit of flu vaccinations, know the relevant statistics, but underestimate their own chances of acquiring an infection—because they believe that they are above average—getting them to shift their perspective may help them assess their risk more accurately. Why do some people not feel well after getting a seasonal flu vaccine? Decreased Influenza Activity During the COVID-19 Pandemic - United States, Australia, Chile, and South Africa, 2020. Let y denote the probability of getting infected with vaccination.

If ε denotes the efficacy of the vaccine (ε = 0 means the vaccine is completely ineffective; ε = 1 means the vaccine is perfectly effective), then y = (1 − ε)x.

Healthline Media does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Thus, someone who exhibits time inconsistency could plan on getting a flu shot in 2 weeks, but change that plan when the 2 weeks are over. Comments and suggestions from the editor and several anonymous reviewers are gratefully acknowledged. People who can get the flu shot: Different flu shots are approved for people of different ages. Using a randomized controlled trial with students in Pennsylvania colleges, Bronchetti et al. Here's why that happens. For example, Ward (Ward, 2014) looked at a free vaccination program offered to Ontario residents between 25 and 64 years old. Last month, Kiera Driscoll, a 5-year-old Las Vegas kindergartner, whose parents said she was given a flu vaccine, went into cardiac arrest and died after coming down with influenza and pneumonia.

Our cognitive biases also lead people to the false belief that they are invulnerable to the flu, i.e. When you don't get the vaccine, you can spread the virus to these vulnerable people or put other people, like the elderly and the immunosuppressed, at higher risk for getting the flu and developing complications. One vital implication of studies looking at loss aversion, framing, and anticipatory regret is that how the consequences of getting a flu shot (or not) are presented to people can—by influencing their perception of the cost and benefit of vaccination—significantly affect their flu shot decisions.

Similarly, if flu shot clinics or doctor's offices are far away or highly inaccessible, that would increase one's personal cost of vaccination.

For example, cognitive biases such as the availability heuristic, our propensity to believe that we are above average in many domains of our lives, and loss aversion can significantly impact how we view the cost and benefit of our actions. “Specific to influenza, a yearly vaccine is the single best way to protect children from the flu,” she said. We can draw on psychology and behavioral economics for other ways that could increase vaccination rates.

Our website services, content, and products are for informational purposes only. Behavioral economists and psychologists have made enormous strides recently in studying how errors and biases arise when people process information, and how these affect the decisions people make and the actions they take.

CDC officials say that still leaves millions of those most vulnerable to the illness at risk. Every year 5–20% of Americans get infected with influenza, leading to more than 200 000 hospitalizations (Thompson et al., 2004) and thousands of deaths (Thompson et al., 2010).