Only half of all Australians intend to vaccinate against influenza in 2018. This is despite the fact that New South Wales had suffered through one of its worst seasons in 2017.

Around 55 percent of Aussies do not plan to vaccinate before the upcoming flu season. This is according to a surveyor commissioned by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.

Released on Tuesday, the poll involved 1,000 people and found that Aussie adults are usually misinformed regarding the virus, which kills around 3,000 people across Australia every year. About three out of four people or 77 percent do not know that the disease can still be active when airborne for over 45 minutes.

Many Australians (57 percent) have the perception that they are at a low risk of contracting the flu. But the flu virus can actually affect even healthy and fit people, according to Pharmacy Guild of Australia president George Tambassis.

Tambassis’s advice is to vaccinate against the disease since flu vaccinations promote community immunity. In a statement on Tuesday, he said it is the best way for people to protect themselves as well as the broader community.

Tambassis explained that if enough people are vaccinated against the infection, they can help protect those unable to be vaccinated, which include infants, SBS reports.

Promotional materials urge the public to “book a flu shot today,” opposing the advice from the Department of Health, the Royal Australian College of GPs, Australian Medical Association and the Federal Government’s immunisation advisory body.

The official advice is to get flu jabs in May or early June to ensure the highest level of protection between July and September, which is the peak season. But some pharmacies and chains promote early flu shots through in-store promotions, online adverts and direct approaches, with some citing outbreak in the Eastern States last year.

Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation advice states that protection against the flu begins to decrease three to four months after vaccination. RACGP president Dr Bastian Seidel has warned that urging patients to receive flu vaccination too early in the year may put them at serious risk.

“The last thing we want to see this year is patients doing the right thing and receiving a flu vaccination, only for the vaccination to wear off by the time we reach flu season,” Perth Now reports Dr Seidel as saying. During the last flu season, NSW recorded over 100,000 cases of influenza notifications.

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