Influenza 2026, vaccines decreasing among the over 65s: coverage below 50%

Three percentage point drop (from 52.5 to 49.8%) recorded in the 2025-26 season compared to the previous year. The decrease is in almost all Italian regions, except in the autonomous province of Bolzano, Lombardy, Tuscany, Umbria, Marche, Abruzzo and Sardinia. According to family doctors "it is also symptomatic of the vaccine distrust in the population, which arose in the post-Covid pandemic and which must absolutely be overcome"

Last winter, 7.2 million people over 65 were vaccinated against influenza in Italy. Umbria is the region with the highest membership, equal to 62%, while the autonomous Province of Trento comes in last place. What is worrying, however, is the comparison with the previous season, which highlights a drop of 2.7 percentage points among those over 65 vaccinated, bringing coverage below 50%. This is highlighted by the data published on the Ministry of Health website, which confirms "a decreasing trend in recent seasons". "A gap that absolutely needs to be closed", warn family doctors.

In 2025-2026, coverage fell from 52.5% in 2024-2025 to 49.8%, a figure very far from the minimum objective of 75% of vaccinated people, a percentage never achieved in Italy, not even in the golden periods, when, in 2005-2006, 68.3% of the target population was vaccinated. After a progressive decline, coverage rebounded upwards with the Covid-19 pandemic, reaching 65% in 2020-2021, and then resumed a decline that is still ongoing.

The decrease is generalized in almost all Italian regions, except in the autonomous province of Bolzano, Lombardy, Tuscany, Umbria, Marche, Abruzzo and Sardinia. For Niccolò Biancalani, secretary of the Italian Federation of General Practitioners (Fimmg), "it is also symptomatic of the vaccine distrust in the population, which arose in the post-Covid pandemic and which must absolutely be overcome. Because the vaccine is a mass prevention weapon that must be fully exploited to protect especially the most fragile from the complications of the flu", including potentially lethal pneumonia.

Lombardy, with 1.2 million people, is the region with the highest number of over 65s vaccinated against influenza in the 2025-2026 season, compared to a total of 7.2 million vaccinated in this age group in Italy. From a percentage point of view, however, Umbria is the region with the highest participation of over 65s in the vaccination campaign, equal to 62%, followed by Tuscany (58.5%) and Emilia-Romagna (57.7%). At the other end of the ranking is confirmed the autonomous Province of Trento (34.3%), followed by Valle d'Aosta (36%) and Sardinia (36.7%).

"The vaccination campaign against influenza started late this year, also for meteorological reasons, given the heat that accompanied us until mid-October, but is now underway at full speed. The vaccines are there, they have arrived in the Regions and the population is responding well. There are no major critical issues, except for the Campania Region, where a shortage of doses had been reported, as reported in recent days", explains Biancalani, commenting on the vaccination campaign underway this year.