Why Australia May Be ‘Woefully Unprepared’ for Flu Season<br />The Health Department says "the flu vaccine is recommended for everyone from 6 months of age," but Dr. Bartone suggested<br />that the government could be more absolute in telling people to get vaccinated.<br />When asked how many Australians had received the influenza vaccination this season, a spokeswoman for the Health<br />and Human Services Department said that for now, the agency had no idea.<br />" said Dr. Tony Bartone, the vice president of the medical association. that Up to now, people have had a misconception about what influenza is,<br />This month, Michael Gannon, the president of the Australian Medical Association, said the country was "woefully unprepared" for the pandemic flu outbreak<br />and pointed to the low rate at which people receive their flu shots.<br />The Australian character is, ‘I’m not going to be bowled over by the flu’ — not give it its due respect." In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control<br />and Prevention in the United States voted to opt for a "universal" flu vaccination, broadening the pool of people in the country considered most at risk.<br />There are similar gaps in data when it comes to documenting fatalities: the Health<br />and Human Services Department in Victoria has reported 95 influenza-related deaths — a number that, on its own, is larger than national figures.
