One consideration with the recommended widespread administration of annual flu shots to all children over six months of age is interference with the acquisition of influenza antibodies acquired after recovery from type A or B influenza infections. The question of whether it is better for healthy children, who rarely suffer complications from flu, to get the flu and develop permanent immunity to that flu strain or whether it is better for children to get vaccinated every year to try to suppress all flu infection in early childhood is a question that has yet to be adequately answered by medical science.
Although in the past the flu vaccine has not been recommended for healthy children, today vaccination of children between the ages of six months and 18 years is strongly recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the CDC and New Jersey, Ohio, Connecticut, New York City, and Rhode Island require influenza vaccine for daycare and/ or preschool entry.
On August 19, 2020, Massachusetts public health officials announced that all children six months of age and older attending child care, pre-school, kindergarten, K-12 and colleges and universities in Massachusetts will be required to get the influenza vaccine to reduce flu-related illness and the overall impact of respiratory illness during the COVID-19 pandemic
. Massachusetts was the first state to require influenza vaccinations for all students attending kindergarten, primary and secondary schools and colleges and universities.
