Influenza is a public health problem. Many people are sick, hospitalized and some die due to influenza disease. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that during each influenza season, influenza virus infection has caused 9.3 million–49 million symptomatic illnesses, 4.3 million–23 million medical visits, 140,000–960,000 hospitalizations, and 12,000–79,000 deaths (Xu, Blanton, Elal, et al., 2019). To reduce the morbidity and mortality caused by influenza disease, The CDC uses many communication channels to deliver health information regarding influenza prevention and control measures. CDC has many free influenza communication resources including print materials, toolkits, web tools, connect with us, videos and podcasts, images and infographic, and graphic novels. The digital media toolkit provides resources to partners, organizations, and individuals looking for resources to promote flu vaccination (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019). The connect with us is a flu social media that include CDC Facebook, CDC flu on Twitter, Youtube, and Newsletter. The web tool consists of the widgets, buttons & badges and RSS feed. CDC flu widget is an interactive web tool that can be used to share influenza messages. The flu vaccine finder locates flu vaccine clinics near a person (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016).They are four factors involved in the communication process the sender factor, the message factor, the channel factor, and receiver factor. The channel factor is the medium that carries the message from the sender to the receiver factor and the receiver factor deals with the person that receives and encodes the message from the sender (Kachentawa, & Cheyjunya, 2017). The channels used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Control are not reaching the poor, not educated population. In Wayne County, Michigan, influenza disease affects many people and yet many people have not received the annual influenza vaccine. Some of the people are poor, do not have health insurance, not educated. The message does not address the fears and health concerns that some people have regarding the safety of influenza vaccination. These CDC influenza channels are very good for the educated and rich people.ReferencesCenters for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Toolkits. Retrieved fromhttps://www.cdc.gov/flu/resource-center/freeresources/toolkit.htmCenters for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). Widgets. Retrieved fromhttps://www.cdc.gov/flu/resource-center/freeresources/tools/widgets.htmKachentawa, K., & Cheyjunya, P. (2017). Factors promoting participatory communicationto create health communication behavior in the community. International Journalof Behavioral Science, 12(1), 13-28. Retrieved from https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=121364382&site=eds-live&scope=siteXu X, Blanton L, Elal AI, et al. Update: Influenza Activity in the United States During the2018–19 Season and Composition of the 2019–20 Influenza Vaccine.MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2019;68:544–551. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6824a3 Retrieved fromhttps://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6824a3.htm#suggestedcitation
