CDC recommends updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 and flu vaccines for fall/winter virus season
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended the updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccines and the updated 2024-2025 flu vaccines to protect against severe COVID-19 and flu this fall and winter.
CDC recommends everyone ages 6 months and older receive an updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine to protect against the potentially serious outcomes of COVID-19 this fall and winter whether or not they have ever previously been vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine. Updated COVID-19 vaccines will be available from Moderna, Novavax, and Pfizer later this year. This recommendation will take effect as soon as the new vaccines are available.
CDC recommends everyone 6 months of age and older, with rare exceptions, receive an updated 2024-2025 flu vaccine to reduce the risk of influenza and its potentially serious complications this fall and winter. CDC encourages providers to begin their influenza vaccination planning efforts now and to vaccinate patients as indicated once 2024-2025 influenza vaccines become available.
Most people need only one dose of the flu vaccine each season. While CDC recommends flu vaccination as long as influenza viruses are circulating, September and October remain the best times for most people to get vaccinated. Flu vaccination in July and August is not recommended for most people, but there are several considerations regarding vaccination during those months for specific groups:
- Pregnant people who are in their third trimester can get a flu vaccine in July or August to protect their babies from flu after birth, when they are too young to get vaccinated.
- Children who need two doses of the flu vaccine should get their first dose of vaccine as soon as it becomes available. The second dose should be given at least four weeks after the first.
- Vaccination in July or August can be considered for children who have healthcare visits during those months if there might not be another opportunity to vaccinate them.
- For adults (especially those 65 years old and older) and pregnant people in the first and second trimester, vaccination in July and August should be avoided unless it won’t be possible to vaccinate in September or October.
Updated 2024-2025 flu vaccines will all be trivalent and will protect against an H1N1, H3N2 and a B/Victoria lineage virus. The composition of this season’s vaccine compared to last has been updated with a new influenza A(H3N2) virus.
