Expanding flu vaccine coverage to healthy young people, as well as the elderly, can decrease overall infection rates by more than 90 percent

The elderly are often hit the hardest during flu season, and this vulnerability means that they tend to be targeted by vaccination programs. But is the whole population missing out when younger people are left unvaccinated? New research from Courtney J. Ward looks at the effects of expanding vaccination in the Canadian province of Ontario, finding that increased coverage across the entire population means that the infection rate can fall by as much as 92 percent. She argues that in order to mount the best defense against the flu, policy makers may want to ignore conventional wisdom and expand incentives for healthy young Americans to vaccinate.