All Australians should be offered free flu vaccines to prevent ‘disaster’, experts say

Medical professionals are ramping up calls for the flu vaccine to be made free nationwide, saying governments needed to think about the coming flu peak as a looming "disaster" as it coincides with ongoing high rates of Covid infection.

Queensland has already made the jab free amid soaring influenza rates in the state, while the New South Wales government is taking steps to follow suit amid unprecedented demand for its ambulance and hospital services.

Hospitalisations are doubling every week in Queensland, while NSW, Victoria and central Australia are also experiencing large outbreaks of two circulating influenza strains, H1 and H3, with infections rates particularly high among young people.

The deputy director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Prof Ian Barr, said the vaccination should be free to indicate the severity of the early influenza season.

Just 24% of the adult population and 9% of children under five have received a flu vaccine.

"We need something to motivate people to get vaccinated this year, we've got high rates and it's no use waiting three or four weeks to get out there."

Barr said flu season had arrived a month or two earlier than normal this year, with a peak expected "well before" August.