Plans Urge Flu Vaccination to Blunt Effects of Pandemic

Even as the COVID-19 crisis continues, public health officials are warning that an influenza pandemic might emerge this fall or winter. A double pandemic would kill even more people than COVID-19 on its own and strain the already overworked health care system. To prevent that deadly combination, plans have stepped up their usual flu-season member outreach programs, particularly for seniors.

The public health community has issued stern warnings about the danger of a double pandemic. An Aug. 14 clinical update published on the Journal of the American Medical Association website called the “looming threat of concurrent influenza and COVID-19 epidemics†a “major concern for public health officials and clinicians.†The article urged health care leaders to take a proactive approach to getting the public vaccinated for influenza.

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Peter Johnson

Peter Johnson

Peter has worked as a journalist since 2011 and has covered health care since 2020. At AIS Health, Peter covers trends in finance, business and policy that affect the health insurance and pharma sectors. For Health Plan Weekly, he covers all aspects of the U.S. health insurance sector, including employer-sponsored insurance, Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage and the Affordable Care Act individual marketplaces. In Radar on Drug Benefits, Peter covers the operations of (and conflicts between) pharmacy benefit managers and pharmaceutical manufacturers, with a particular focus on pricing dynamics and market access. Before joining AIS Health, Peter covered transportation, public safety and local government for various outlets in Seattle, his hometown and current place of residence. He graduated with a B.A. from Colby College.

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