Historic vaccination patterns provide insights for COVID 19 vaccine rollout McMorrow, Stacey, author. Thomas, Tyler W., author. COVID-19 Vaccines Healthcare Disparities -- statistics & numerical data Influenza Vaccines -- history Medically Uninsured -- statistics & numerical data Minority Groups -- statistics & numerical data Poverty -- statistics & numerical data Vaccination Refusal -- history Longstanding barriers to vaccine uptake are likely to affect the success of Covid 19 vaccination efforts. These may include fears that vaccines will cause illness or produce dangerous side effects, insurance-related barriers that affect costs and access to health care providers, a lack of paid leave, a perceived lack of time, and other issues of inconvenient access. Existing barriers to vaccine uptake may be exacerbated in the case of the Covid 19 vaccine due to its novelty, the pandemic related economic crisis, and current racial and economic tensions in the United States. To provide insights as to where additional outreach and education efforts may be needed as the Covid 19 vaccine rollout continues, we examine historic vaccination patterns among adults using data from the 2016-18 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). We focus on the flu vaccine because it is recommended for all adults regardless of age, and we stratify the population into three risk groups: nonelderly adults (ages 19-64) at low risk of severe disease from Covid 19, nonelderly adults at high risk of severe disease from Covid 19 and elderly adults ages 65 and over who are at high risk due to their age alone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend prioritizing the elderly and others at risk of severe disease during the vaccine rollout, so we consider how these populations have used vaccines in the past. There is also considerable overlap between risk factors for Covid 19 and the flu, so flu vaccination patterns across Covid 19 health risk groups may also reflect how disease risk is associated with vaccination rates. For each risk group, we examine variation in vaccination rates by gender, race/ethnicity, region, income relative to poverty, insurance coverage and presence of a usual source of care. We also describe the demographic, socioeconomic and health characteristics of the population of higher risk adults who did not receive their flu vaccines. Finally, we consider pneumonia and shingles vaccination rates among the elderly because these vaccines vary in their administration schedules and novelty and may provide different insights into potential barriers to Covid 19 vaccine use. [Washington, DC] : Urban Institute, March 2021 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, issuing body. Urban Institute, issuing body. Technical Report Text Illustrations 1 online resource (1 PDF file (11 pages)) nlm:nlmuid-9918316884406676-pdf 9918316884406676 http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918316884406676 English United States Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-DC license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0