Clinicians are burned out in the face of enduring vaccine hesitancy as flu cases keep coming at pace.
Clinicians are burned out and still facing vaccine hesitancy from patients as the influenza season shows no signs of slowing down among an under-vaccinated population.
GP and Immunisation Coalition chairman Dr Rod Pearce OAM said the influenza season was dragging out and “not shutting down over summer”, as new influenza strains emerged.
Healthcare providers were facing burnout and fatigue in the face of continuing vaccine hesitancy, he told Allergy & Respiratory Republic.
“Providers … are sick of having those half-hour conversations when people are hesitant and then get down rabbit holes and have these arguments,” said Dr Pearce.
“We think there’s some confusion between safety of vaccines for covid and safety of vaccines for flu.
“Flu is a proven safe vaccine for children, and it makes a huge difference, whereas covid isn’t needed for children because it’s not a nasty disease in young people.”
Dr Pearce said another cause of confusion among patients was the non-seasonal approach to covid vaccination, which is needed around six months after having the infection rather than seasonally.
“So that just adds to another blurring of the lines,” he said.
“Try to encourage everyone, both providers and communities, to realise there is a value in being vaccinated.”
Figures from the ABS show that covid has been the leading cause of acute respiratory infection-related mortality throughout 2023 to 2025.
However, in August this year, the number of deaths involving influenza exceeded covid-related deaths.
According to the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System, there have been more than 440,000 reported cases of influenza so far this year compared with 365,600 last year.
There have also been 155 cases of measles this year compared with 57 last year.
A surge in cases of the H3 subtype of influenza A is also behind the increase, Dr Pearce said.
That variant is behind a severe flu season in the northern hemisphere, and the World Health Organization reported in October that the H3 variant continues to dominate influenza cases.
Dr Pearce said that at last week’s Immunisation Coalition meeting, clinicians reported that the influenza season seemed to be a prolonged season rather than a sharp spike.
“The season is dragging out, and we noticed that it didn’t disappear for flu during summer. All of the clinicians have said it seems to be dragging on longer, and there are people in hospital in November,” he said.
“And normally you’d say, is it going to be a late peak? Maybe. But it looks like we had two or three ongoing relatively high peaks. There wasn’t any one time when it was at a maximum, but it’s dragging on.
“We’ve all noticed it’s dragging on, and we’ve all noticed that it didn’t disappear over summer, and there’s been a slight strange shift to the H3 later on in the season.
“If the vaccination rate had been higher, then maybe that would have made a difference.”
Dr Pearce said it was no surprise that there was an increase in influenza numbers when vaccination rates in at-risk groups had dropped off.
Data from the Immunisation Coalition shows that 25% of children under five have had the influenza vaccine this year, while vaccine coverage was 14% among children aged five to 15 years.
That compares with 20% in the 15-50 age group, 32% of 50–65-year-olds and 60% among people aged 65 years and over.
Dr Pearce said influenza vaccination rates in children were “disgustingly low”, despite the vaccine being available for free on the vaccination schedule.
One factor could be that the influenza vaccine is not part of the “no jab, no pay” regulations which require proof of vaccination to receive the childcare subsidy, he said.
“And there’s a … contradiction or inconsistency when the government says we’re going to fund it, but we’re not measuring it as part of the complete vaccination,” Dr Pearce said.
Another issue, he said, was the lack of integration or co-ordinated response between vaccine providers.
“We’ve got more providers than we’ve ever had, but we’ve got lower [vaccination] numbers,” he told ARR.
“If you have 10 different groups saying we can give vaccines to children, that’s really good, because you’ve got lots of places that can give a vaccine.
“But if they’re not talking to each other or not working with each other, then when someone comes in, is that my job, or is it their job?
“We’ve put lots of people who can give vaccines on the ground, but we haven’t had anything that actually integrates them. There’s nothing that actually supports one provider to coordinate with another provider to give a vaccine.”
Dr Pearce said healthcare providers needed support to deliver government health messages.
“If the government wants to invest, it’s got to be supporting healthcare providers, because local communities want local people they trust to deliver the messages, not someone sitting in an ivory tower in Canberra,” he said.
Meanwhile, a new study in JAMA found that one dose of RSV vaccine prevented RSV-associated hospitalisation during two RSV seasons, but effectiveness was lower in patients with immunocompromise and cardiovascular disease.
The study of almost 7000 people over 60 years found that the estimated vaccine effectiveness against RSV-associated hospitalisation was 58% during two seasons and 69% for same-season vaccination compared with 48% for prior-season vaccination.
“Estimated vaccine effectiveness during 2 seasons was significantly lower among immunocompromised adults,” the researchers said.
