Healthcare professionals in regional Queensland are worried people who would normally get their influenza vaccination are skipping it this year.
Mount Isa Pharmacy First owner and pharmacist Leigh Houldsworth said there had been a "wobble" in vaccination confidence.
"We're seeing about a 30 per cent to 40 per cent decline in influenza vaccines being delivered this year," Ms Houldsworth said.
"That's super concerning going into winter."
Ms Houldsworth said with COVID-19 still "on the radar" she and her staff were working extra hard to get the community vaccinated.
"This year, we have prepared to be able to vaccinate everybody who wants and who has traditionally been vaccinated in our pharmacy," she said.
Gold Coast numbers down
Gold Coast doctors are warning flu cases could increase this year, partly due to increased domestic and trans-Tasman movement.
Gold Coast Primary Health Network director Lisa Beecham said flu vaccinations were about 30 per cent down from last year.
"It could be a number of things; it could be that people are hanging off for the COVID shot so they're delaying the flu shot."
Dr Beecham said anyone who had received the COVID-19 vaccination needed to wait two weeks until they could get their influenza shot.
She said increased hygiene measures during the COVID-19 pandemic could be part of the reason for the drop in flu cases, but said she feared people were now more complacent.
Dr Beecham said the trans-Tasman bubble might play a role in a bounce-back of the flu virus.
"Now we've got the NZ bubble open that border is open and we're all travelling more interstate and intrastate," she said.
"Realistically, we can expect this year that there may well be an increase in influenza back to its normal previous rates."
Flu shots jumped last year
Pharmacy Guild of Australia Queensland branch acting president Chris Owen said while there was a decline in number of people getting the flu jab this year compared to last year, it was up 70 per cent from 2019.
He explained so far this year, between March 1 to April 26 about 2.4 million vaccines had been distributed Australia wide compared to 5.1 million last year and 1.5 million in the same period in 2019.
"The most important people to get a flu jab are the under fives, and the over 65 ... the over 65 because they're the greatest risk of having an adverse effect if they do get influenza and the under fives because they're considered super spreaders."
Mr Owen said he did not believe people's changing attitudes to hygiene, like washing their hands more and socially distancing since the global pandemic, was enough.
"I think the most important thing is to realise that vaccines are all about the community at large.
"It may not necessarily be about you in particular, but it might be about your grandmother or your friend who has a serious illness where their immune systems are lower," he said.
"I also think that we understand that if those people in our community are at risk, then we need to be doing it for those people as well.
"And taking a little bit of the selfish attitude away from it, and saying, it's not going to affect me – well it may not but it may affect that person to you are close to."
