Australian GPs are sounding the alarm over a record-breaking flu season they attribute in part to a rise in anti-vaccination sentiment, fuelled by social media and, they say, the White House.
This ideological wave, which gained momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic, has contributed to a drop in flu vaccinations across almost all age groups – even as confirmed flu cases have soared past previous all-time highs.
There have been more than 410,000 confirmed cases of the flu across the country in 2025 so far – more than the previous all-time high of 365,000 in 2024 – and about 1.5 per cent of the population.
It comes as flu vaccination rates decline across almost all age groups, with doctors particularly concerned for the vulnerable six-month to five-year-old cohort and the 65-plus group, with only 25.7 per cent and 60 per cent having received the vaccine respectively.
Dr Rebekah Hoffman, a GP and chair of the RACGP, said decreasing vaccinations rates was partly because of a rising number of vaccine sceptics.
Hoffman also said anti-vaccine sentiment from the Trump administration – including from health secretary and vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr – had worsened the problem.
She said in her experience, she rarely witnessed vaccine sceptics before the pandemic.
“It’s now something that I’m having a conversation most weeks with my patients about.”
Professor Julie Leask, a Sydney University public health expert specialising in vaccination, said there was no singular reason for the increase in flu case numbers but that “stagnant” vaccinations could be partially explained by barriers to access, such as cost.
“There’s more out-of-pocket costs for people to get their annual flu vaccines amidst a time where people are experiencing more financial difficulty,” Leask said.
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