We believe this tool will help us track national progress toward higher flu vaccination coverage for those 65 and older while offering timely and relevant local information.
While the national numbers offer a broad snapshot of flu vaccination coverage across the country, those working at the community level often lack the specific local data.
Only in Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Ukraine do "national health authorities survey and communicate their own statistics of flu vaccine coverage by target group each year".
Also during a pandemic, vaccination rate did not increase, and, although the rate was higher than for seasonal flu, H1N1 vaccination coverage was totally unsatisfactory.
In France, we recently showed a similar coverage of flu vaccination in patients with cancer (30%) (Loulergue et al, 2008).
The National Board of Health in Sweden recommended that everybody should be vaccinated against pandemic H1N1 flu and the vaccination coverage was at least 60%.
The excellent coverage of "Avian Flu: The Uncertain Threat" (March 28) omits a fundamentally important word: evolution.
It turns out Google didn't anticipate how outside influences, like media coverage of the flu and the rise in discussions on social media, would affect its data and statistics.
Also check out our full coverage of the flu controversy.
You can find Science's full coverage of swine flu here.
