With the global focus on COVID-19 vaccinations, it’s easy to push aside another preventative measure that should be at the center of the conversation right now: the seasonal flu vaccine.

Some people may assume that, because they’re protected from the more deadly virus, they can skip the everyday, garden-variety flu vaccine. Other folks may struggle to find the time to make yet one more health-related appointment … or remember to get it at all. And vaccinehesitancyand skepticism may be fueled by concern about flu vaccines targeting the wrong strains of flu.

But it’s definitely worth getting the flu vaccine. If we look beyond the fear and weariness to the cold, hard facts ，大多数人都有令人兴奋的原因来获得流感疫苗接种 - 如果你还没有，那还不算太晚。流感季节可以延伸到5月。

The benefits of getting a flu shot are clearly supported by research 。除了让您免于生病和降低严重疾病的风险外，流感疫苗还可以保护孕人，儿童和慢性条件的人等风险群体。

If you are vigilant about getting your flu shot, you’re in good company. During the 2018-2019 flu season,* 169 million seasonal flu vaccines were distributed in the U.S. Translated: Of people 6 months and older, 49 percent were vaccinated.

In the graphic below, you can see that flu season’s vaccination numbers broken down by state, along with a few fast facts.

我们可以用这些疫苗的纯粹纯粹的纯粹纯粹的统计数据：在2019 - 2020年的流感季节，疫苗接种可防止7.52亿甚至3.69亿医疗访问，105,000名住院， over 6,300 deaths in the U.S.

On the flip side, however, 51 percent of the U.S. populationdid not接种疫苗接种流感。

That reluctance to get immunized can have dire consequences. The CDC estimates that the flu has resulted in 52,000 deaths and 720,000 hospitalizations annually in the past decade.

Below, you can see the number of flu deaths from the same flu season represented in the vaccination graphic above.

The good news is that attitudes toward vaccines are shifting, and more people than ever before are willing to get their shot. For the 2020-2021 flu season, the estimated vaccine coverage rate for people 6 months and older is 52.1 percent.

You can do your part by spreading the word and remembering to schedule that seasonal flu vaccination every year.

*This data is from 2018-2019 because more recent flu numbers have been impacted by COVID-19.