Health experts advise people to get vaccinated

BOZEMAN, Mont. — As flu season ramps up, health care experts are advising everyone to get both a flu shot and an updated COVID-19 vaccine.

Data from Pew Research indicates that only 28% of Americans received the updated COVID-19 vaccine last year, while 44% received a flu shot.

Medical experts say the number of people receiving these seasonal vaccines is trending downward as misinformation spreads about the safety of vaccines, specifically the mRNA technology used in creating COVID-19 vaccines.

But doctors reiterate that both the flu and COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective and that COVID-19 continues to present a significant health risk to the general population that can be reduced through vaccination.

“Your chances of something bad happening to you because of a flu or covid infection are much greater than your chances of having something bad happen to you because of one of these vaccines,” said Dr. Peter Bulger, an infectious disease physician at Bozeman Health.

Though vaccines do not guarantee that one will not contract a virus, Bulger says that if one should become ill, vaccines greatly reduce the likelihood of hospitalization and complications like long COVID.