--- title: "More Americans report getting a flu shot than the updated COVID-19 vaccine since August" description: "Just over half of U.S. adults (53%) say they’ve gotten neither the flu shot nor the updated COVID-19 vaccine since last August." date: "2025-03-20" authors: - name: "Giancarlo Pasquini" job_title: "Research Associate" link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/giancarlo-pasquini/" - name: "Alec Tyson" job_title: "Former Associate Director" link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/alec-tyson/" url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/03/20/more-americans-report-getting-a-flu-shot-than-the-updated-covid-19-vaccine-since-august/" categories: - "Coronavirus (COVID-19)" - "Medicine & Health" - "Vaccines" --- # More Americans report getting a flu shot than the updated COVID-19 vaccine since August More U.S. adults say they’ve gotten the updated flu shot than the updated COVID-19 shot (42% vs. 27%) since the two vaccines became available in the United States last summer, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. This is similar to [levels of uptake measured for last year’s versions of these vaccines](https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2024/03/07/how-americans-view-the-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccines-amid-declining-levels-of-concern/). [![A bar chart showing that more U.S. adults say they’ve gotten the flu shot than updated COVID-19 vaccine.](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/SR_25.03.20_Vaccines_1.png?w=620)](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=202561) The current flu season has seen [high numbers of hospitalizations and deaths from the disease](https://www.cdc.gov/flu/php/surveillance/in-season-severity.html). At the same time, COVID-19 [continues to take a serious health toll on some Americans](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#covidnet-hospitalization-network), though to a [much lesser extent than in previous years](https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/02/07/nx-s1-5287758/flu-covid-rsv-virus-season). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [recommends getting both the flu shot](https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines/vaccinations.html) and the [updated COVID-19 vaccine](https://www.cdc.gov/covid/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html) to protect against severe illness from both diseases. They add that these vaccines are especially important for groups of people at high risk of severe complications from flu and COVID-19, such as adults ages 65 and older. **How we did this** Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to determine the share of Americans who say they have gotten the flu shot and updated COVID-19 vaccine. We surveyed 5,123 U.S. adults from Feb. 24 to March 2, 2025. Everyone who took part in the survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection. Interviews were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the [ATP’s methodology](https://www.pewresearch.org/the-american-trends-panel/). Here are the [questions used for this analysis](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/SR_25.03.20_Vaccines_questionnaire.pdf), the [topline](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/SR_25.03.20_Vaccines_topline.pdf) and the [survey methodology](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/SR_25.03.20_Vaccines_methodology.pdf). #### Many Americans have not gotten either a flu shot or updated COVID-19 vaccine [![A chart showing that 53% of U.S. adults say they’ve gotten neither the flu shot nor the updated COVID-19 vaccine since last August.](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/SR_25.03.20_Vaccines_2.png?w=620)](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=202562) **Just over half of U.S. adults (53%) say they’ve gotten *neither* the flu shot nor the updated COVID-19 vaccine since last August.** By comparison, a far smaller share (22%) say they’ve gotten *both* these vaccines. One-in-five adults report getting a flu shot but *not* the updated COVID-19 shot. And a very small share report the opposite behavior: Just 5% of Americans say they’ve gotten the updated COVID-19 vaccine but *not* the flu shot. #### Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to get each vaccine [![A dot plot showing that, across age groups, Democrats and Republicans differ widely in uptake of flu shot, updated COVID-19 vaccine.](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/SR_25.03.20_Vaccines_3.png?w=640)](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=202566) Democrats and independents who lean to the Democratic Party are more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to say they’ve gotten the flu shot (53% vs. 32%). Democrats also are more likely than Republicans to report getting the updated COVID-19 vaccine (42% vs. 12%). ##### Partisan differences across age groups Age also matters when it comes to getting these shots. In both parties, adults ages 65 and older are more likely than their younger counterparts to get each shot. Still, in every age group, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to report getting each vaccine. **The gap between Democrats and Republicans is especially wide when looking at COVID-19 vaccine uptake among Americans 65 and older,** a [group at high risk for severe illness](https://www.cdc.gov/covid/hcp/clinical-care/underlying-conditions.html#cdc_generic_section_3-demographic-factors). Among Americans 65 and older, 69% of Democrats say they’ve gotten the updated COVID-19 vaccine, compared with just 23% of Republicans. This 46 percentage point gap is comparable to the one we observed last year, but [much larger than the one for the first coronavirus vaccines in 2021](https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2024/03/07/how-americans-view-the-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccines-amid-declining-levels-of-concern/#covid-19-vaccination-among-adults-ages-65-and-older-by-party). There’s also a partisan gap among those ages 65 and older when it comes to flu shot uptake, though it’s not as wide. A majority of Republicans in this age group (56%) say they have gotten a flu shot; an even larger share of Democrats 65 and older say the same (78%). *Uptake of COVID-19 vaccines since 2021* [![A line chart showing that COVID-19 vaccine uptake since start of the pandemic.](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/SR_25.03.20_Vaccines_4.png?w=640)](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=202565) The share of Americans who say they’ve gotten the updated COVID-19 vaccine is largely unchanged from a year ago (27% today vs. 28% then). These levels are much lower than vaccine uptake at other moments of the pandemic. For instance, 69% of U.S. adults said they were fully vaccinated in August 2021, months after the first round of COVID-19 vaccines became widely available to Americans. As newer versions of COVID-19 vaccines have become available, a declining share of Americans have chosen to get the most up-to-date shots. Americans have also become [less likely to view COVID-19 as a major health threat](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/02/12/americans-views-on-covid-19-risk-and-the-countrys-response-to-health-emergencies/#do-americans-still-see-covid-19-as-a-major-threat), and [rates of hospitalizations](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#covidnet-hospitalization-network) and [deaths from the disease](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklydeaths_select_00) have fallen. For more information about uptake of this year’s flu shot and updated COVID-19 vaccine, refer to [this chart for flu shot uptake](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=202564) and [this chart for updated COVID-19 uptake](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=202563). *Note: Here are the [questions used for this analysis](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/SR_25.03.20_Vaccines_questionnaire.pdf), the [topline](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/SR_25.03.20_Vaccines_topline.pdf) and the [survey methodology](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/SR_25.03.20_Vaccines_methodology.pdf).*