'As Americans prepare for another flu season, the question of whether to get this year's flu shot hangs in the air for many and the dismal success rate of last year's vaccine could serve as a major deciding factor.
36 percent effectiveness may not seem very impressive, but the CDC emphasizes in the report that even small increases in immunity can have a large impact on public health. CDC data has shown that even in 2014-2015, a year when vaccine effectiveness didn't even hit 20%, immunizations prevented as many as 144,000 flu-related hospitalizations and 4,000 deaths. Plus, people who get the shot, but who still end up getting sick, tend to have less severe illnesses than unvaccinated people.