If you are over 65, you should be scheduling your Fall vaccines. Discuss these vaccines that have been recommended by the CDC previously with your doctor:
Flu Vaccine
Flu season typically begins in October and ends in March, so the CDC recommends that all adults roll up their sleeves by the end of October, since it takes about two weeks after a vaccination for flu-fighting antibodies to develop in the body. Adults 65 and older should make sure they receive a high-dose version of the shot.
Each year, the flu is to blame for hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of deaths, and older adults are at higher risk for these serious outcomes. Fifty to 70 percent of flu-related hospitalizations occur among people 65 and older, according to the CDC, and 70 to 85 percent of flu-related deaths occur.
COVID-19 Vaccine
While there is no Covid season, infections do spike in the winter. Unlike in previous years, when Covid boosters were broadly recommended for everyone over 6 months old, this year’s formulations are approved for people 65 years old and older and those with underlying health conditions, which have historically included asthma, cancer, and chronic kidney disease, among others.
But who else will be able to get these vaccines, and at what price, is a different question. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has yet to make any recommendations about this year’s COVID-19 vaccines. CDC guidelines go hand in hand with insurance coverage in the US. By law, insurers must cover the cost of federally recommended vaccines; the CDC is responsible for making those recommendations. Without them, it’s unclear who can get a free vaccine. The list price for COVID-19 vaccines has historically hovered around $120.
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)
Late Summer, early Fall is the recommended time to get an RSV vaccine. The CDC has previously recommended that adults ages 75 and older should get the vaccine to protect against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), as should people ages 50 to 74 who live in nursing homes or who have certain medical conditions that put them at increased risk for severe illness, like heart and lung disease.
RSV is often associated with children, but it can be especially dangerous for older adults too. Each year, it causes 60,000 to 160,000 hospitalizations and 6,000 to 10,000 deaths among adults 65 and older, according to the CDC. In clinical trials, the vaccines were found to significantly reduce the risk of serious symptoms from an infection. The vaccine could be especially helpful when it comes to avoiding a fall/winter “tripledemic” — a name used to describe the convergence of flu, COVID-19 and RSV.
RSV is a one-time vaccine. If you have already received your vaccine, you do not need a yearly booster.
Pneumococcal Vaccine
Before COVID-19 came along, pneumococcal disease, which can cause pneumonia, killed more people in the U.S. each year than all other vaccine-preventable diseases combined. Young children and those over 65 have the highest incidence of serious illness, and older adults are more likely to die from it. Experts estimate PCV13 (one of the pneumococcal vaccines available) prevented more than 30,000 cases of invasive pneumococcal disease and 3,000 deaths in its first three years of use.
Adults who haven’t received a pneumococcal vaccine should opt for either the PCV15, PCV20 or PCV21. If PCV15 is used, it should be followed by a dose of PPSV23 a year later. (If you’re immunocompromised, you may get it sooner.)
The Tdap vaccine came out in 2005, and along with protecting against tetanus and diphtheria, like the vaccine it replaced, it includes additional protection against whooping cough, also known as pertussis. The CDC previously recommended that adults should receive a booster dose of either Tdap or Td every 10 years, or after five years if you get a severe wound or burn.
Due to a rise in whooping cough cases in the U.S., the vaccine is especially crucial for people — including parents, grandparents and childcare providers — who have close contact with children younger than 12 months.
Shingles Vaccine
One in 3 people will get shingles, usually after age 50. The risk rises with age. By 85, half of adults will have had at least one outbreak. Chicken pox and shingles are caused by the same virus, varicella zoster. After a person recovers from chicken pox, this virus stays dormant for decades in the body, ready to appear when the immune system is weakened by stress, medication or disease.
This infection causes a red rash and painful blisters. About 15 percent of sufferers are left with extreme nerve pain — a condition called postherpetic neuralgia, which can last for months or years. Shingrix can protect 97 percent of people in their 50s and 60s, and 91 percent of those in their 70s and 80s.
The CDC recommends that everyone 50 and older get the Shingrix shingles vaccine, even if they had the earlier recommended vaccine, Zostavax — which was much less effective — and even if they’ve already had shingles. Shingrix comes in two doses, spaced two to six months apart.
Older adults should get this vaccine whether they remember having chicken pox as a child. Because more than 99 percent of Americans over 40 have been exposed to the varicella zoster virus, even if they don’t recall getting chicken pox.
Hepatitis A
People 50 and older are at high risk for hepatitis A, a disease of the liver. Infections result primarily from travel to another country where hepatitis A virus transmission is common, through close contact with a hepatitis A–infected individual, or recreational drug use. The likelihood of experiencing symptoms decreases as you age.
Hepatitis A rates in the U.S. have declined by more than 95 percent since the hepatitis A vaccine first became available in 1995. In 2016, there were an estimated 4,000 hepatitis A cases in the U.S. The vaccine is given once but given in two doses over six months.
Hepatitis B
Adults 50 and older are at risk of contracting hepatitis B, a liver infection. Hepatitis B is transmitted when a body fluid (blood, semen, saliva) from a person infected with the hepatitis B virus enters the body of someone who is not infected. This can happen through sexual contact or contact with blood or open sores (say, from a job that exposes you to human bodily fluids) or sharing anything from a needle to a razor to a toothbrush with an infected person. Other risk factors for infection include being on kidney dialysis, traveling to countries where hepatitis B is common, or having HIV.
Adults getting the vaccine need three doses — the second dose given four weeks after the first; the third dose five months after the second. There is also a combination vaccine for both hepatitis A and B called Twinrix, which is given in three doses over six months.
Talk to your doctor if you have a life-threatening allergy to yeast or to any other component of the vaccine, or you are moderately or severely ill when a dose of Hepatitis B vaccine is scheduled.