Top 10 Reasons to Vaccinate During National Immunization Awareness Month

August is National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM). NIAM raises awareness about the importance of up-to-date vaccinations for people of all ages and how vaccines help prevent serious, sometimes deadly, diseases and illnesses. NIAM is more important than ever with the current summer surge of COVID-19 cases, the need for back-to-school vaccinations and the re-emergence of many life-threatening illnesses.

Due to life science advancements, vaccines can help protect us against more diseases than ever before. In fact, global immunization efforts have saved at least 154 million lives over the past 50 years. Some diseases that once injured or killed thousands of children have been eliminated primarily due to vaccines. The World Health Organization estimates that immunization currently prevents 3.5-5 million deaths every year from diseases like diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, influenza and measles and tens of millions of people are alive today because of the COVID-19 vaccines.

The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases advises 10 reasons to get vaccinated:

1. Vaccine-preventable diseases have not gone away
   Viruses and bacteria that cause illness and death still exist and can be passed on to those who are unvaccinated and unprotected. While many preventable diseases are no longer common in the U.S., global travel makes it easy for these diseases to spread.
2. Vaccines help keep you healthy
   The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends vaccines throughout your life to help protect against many infections. When you skip vaccines, you are vulnerable to illnesses such as flu, measles, and HPV and hepatitis B–both leading causes of cancer.
3. Vaccines are as important to your overall health as diet and exercise
   Vaccines play a vital role in staying healthy and one of the safest preventive measures available.
4. Vaccination can mean the difference between life and death
   Vaccine-preventable diseases can be deadly. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately 50,000 adults died from vaccine-preventable diseases in the U.S. each year.
5. Vaccines are safe
   The U.S. has a robust approval process in place to ensure that all licensed and approved vaccines are safe. Potential side effects associated with vaccines are extremely rare and far less severe than the often life-threatening diseases they prevent.
6. Vaccines cannot cause the diseases they are designed to prevent
   Vaccines contain either killed or weakened viruses, making it impossible to get the disease from the vaccine.
7. Young and healthy people can get very sick, too
   Although infants and older adults are at increased risk for serious complications, vaccine-preventable diseases can strike anyone, at any time. If you are young and healthy, getting vaccinated helps you stay that way.
8. Vaccine-preventable diseases are expensive
   Disease has a direct impact on individuals and families and also carry a high price tag for society, exceeding $10 billion per year in missed work and healthcare costs.
9. When you get sick, your children, grandchildren, and parents may also be at risk
   Staying up to date on all recommended vaccines helps protect you and your family as well as those in your community who are not able to be vaccinated.
10. Your family and co-workers need you
    Millions of U.S. adults get sick from vaccine-preventable diseases each year, causing them to miss work and leaving them unable to care for those who depend on them.

New COVID-19 Vaccines Due This Fall

Recent news reports are revealing that updated mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech that target a variant of the virus called KP.2 could be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the coming weeks. It has also been reported that Novavax’ non-mRNA shot, targeted to the JN.1 strain, would also be approved in the near future. All are members of the Omicron family. Both Moderna and Pfizer have said they have ample supplies of their updated COVID vaccines on hand, ready for shipment to stores soon after FDA approval.

The news comes as people are suffering through a summer surge of COVID cases — the highest seen since the summer of 2022, based on wastewater levels of virus tracked by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

As of Aug. 3, the percentage of people reporting positive tests for the virus had reached its highest point since January of 2022, and emergency room visits and hospitalizations due to COVID-19 also increased, according to the CDC’s data tracker. However, deaths remained far below the weekly rates during previous surges, with 340 reported during the week ending Aug. 3, compared with 2,578 weekly deaths during the last COVID-19 peak, in January 2024, and nearly 26,000 weekly deaths at the height of the pandemic in the United States, in January 2021.

The reason COVID-19 cases are increasing this summer is likely because people who haven’t been recently vaccinated or infected have fewer antibodies in order to fight off the first sign of the virus and are more likely to experience its symptoms, including fever, chills, sore throat, cough, congestion, body aches, gastrointestinal issues, and fatigue.

In June, the CDC recommended that every American over the age of 6 months receive an updated COVID-19 shot along with the flu shot this year.

For more information about COVID-19 vaccines visit the CDC or California’s My Turn website.