An abundant supply of flu vaccine doses has led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend flu shots for all children ages 6 months and older in addition to the usual targeted groups.

The goal is to reduce the spread of influenza among school-age children and, by extension, among the general population they contact on a daily basis. Achieving that goal would be a critical boost to general public health during flu season. It could avert the rare but tragic loss of life among vulnerable groups and even among healthy children.

Influenza often is waved off by adults - the fact that most people call it "the flu" for short is one indication of how easily it's dismissed.

But parents of young children in particular should be watchful for what appears to be a cold but is accompanied by fever, aches and other symptoms. Every year, 20,000 children under 5 are hospitalized because of influenza. Keiki under 2 are especially susceptible to complications that could send them to the hospital, according to the CDC.

There are various health conditions, including cardiopulmonary diseases, that put people at risk and make a flu shot strongly advisable.

And healthcare workers especially owe it to themselves and to the patients they treat to prevent the spread of influenza. Dr. Julie Gerberding, CDC director, rightly called it "unconscionable" that only 42 percent of healthcare workers were vaccinated last year.

Influenza sickens and kills hundreds of thousands of people each year, which is hard to fathom when an affordable vaccine could prevent such suffering. That's why it makes sense for virtually anyone to get the shot: Even if they are not susceptible to complications, they can avoid becoming a carrier and infecting someone more vulnerable.