In the United States, the majority of medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American Hospital Association, will recommend the flu shot.
However, for some reason, only half of American adults get an annual flu vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the 2022–2023 flu season, when health officials and doctors warned the nation of a potential “tripledemic” of influenza, COVID-19, and RSV, no more than 55% of adults got a flu shot.
Among the main reasons why people don’t want to get vaccinated for the flu is a completely unfounded fear that the shot will give them the flu. However, this is an extremely far-fetched myth. As some vaccines, like the chicken pox vaccine, have a weakened live virus to stimulate the immune response, so does the influenza vaccine.
It’s basically an inactivated vaccine made with viruses that are already killed and therefore won’t cause infections. Even if the nasal mist version of the flu vaccine has some live viruses, they are extremely weakened, so much so that the spray form cannot cause any type of illness, as the CDC explained.
