By Farid Farid

Vaccine uptake among Australians has been lower than previous years ahead of the flu season, with misinformation spreading online and pandemic fatigue also putting people off getting a jab.

Half a million fewer people were vaccinated for influenza in the space of a year, with official figures showing 8.8 million shots in 2024 compared to 9.3 million in 2023.

It’s a trend that doctors say Australia cannot afford to continue.

“We know there’s some vaccine fatigue out there following the pandemic, and some wildly misleading and damaging information on social media,” Australian Medical Association president Danielle McMullen said on Thursday.

A 2022 Health Department report found a decline in the proportion of parents with children up to five years of age who strongly support childhood immunisation, from 72 per cent in 2017 to 50 per cent in 2022.

“I can’t be too blunt about this: thousands of people die each year from respiratory disease including flu, COVID-19 and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus),” Dr McMullen said.

Elderly and immunocompromised people, babies and young children as well as pregnant women with underlying medical conditions are particularly vulnerable to some of these respiratory viruses, she said.

People should get their vaccination around April or May before winter hits, said Dr McMullen, who warned of the potential for a “horror flu season” in Australia following 23,000 deaths recorded in the United States from the disease.

The flu is the most common illness that can be prevented with a vaccine, with the government recommending everyone over the age of six months have an influenza shot every year.