Is the anti-vaxx movement now coming for the flu shot?

Data shows Americans becoming as polarised over the flu shot as Covid vaccines

Two recent polls have shown that the flu shot had become almost as partisan an issue as Covid vaccinations.

The vast majority of Democrats (90 to 95 per cent) have now been vaccinated against Covid while a little under two-thirds of Republican adults have – a divide that is echoed in the data about flu shots this year.

CNN reports that new research indicates which party people belong to is highly correlated with whether they get a flu shot this season, factors that were not significantly linked in the last few years. Americans who got a Covid vaccine are now far more likely to have received a flu shot.

Two recent polls, by Axios/Ipsos and Kaiser Family Foundation showed a 24 and 25 point gap respectively between the number of Democrats who said they had or were likely to get a flu shot and the number of Republicans.

The gap between Democrats and Republicans willing to get a Covid vaccine is not far off those figures, at 30 points. In previous years, polls showed a negligible difference in uptake of flu shots between the two parties, and no evidence of a partisan gap.

As few as 17 per cent of those who haven’t had been vaccinated against Covid say they have or will likely get a flu shot in the Ipsos poll, a statistic that climbs to 64 per cent among those who have received a Covid shot.

According to CNN, the campaign encouraging Americans to get a Covid vaccine seems to have led to more Democrats getting the flu shot, and had the opposite effect on Republicans.