What to know about respiratory vaccine recommendations

What to know about respiratory vaccine recommendations

Several medical groups have joined together to release 2026-2027 respiratory virus immunization recommendations , filling a void left by the relative silence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The groups include the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

The recommendations were informed by a joint review of the evidence for flu , COVID and RSV vaccines conducted by the American Medical Association and the University of Minnesota’s Vaccine Integrity Project. That review was published Wednesday in the medical journal JAMA.

Such a review is typically conducted by a CDC advisory panel, in conjunction with medical groups. But the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has been dismantled under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy fired all members of the panel last year and replaced them with largely with vaccine skeptics.

A lawsuit against that restructuring has temporarily left the panel, and its recommendations, in legal limbo . The CDC on Tuesday updated its clinical guidance for the flu vaccine to follow last year’s recommendations, but it did not mention the new mRNA shots available for older adults that FDA recently approved.

All children 6 months and older receive the flu vaccine;

All children ages 6-23 months receive the COVID-19 vaccine, while children 2-18 years old get the shot if they’re in certain risk groups or simply want it;

All children 8 months and younger get the RSV shot if their mother did not get vaccinated while pregnant, while children ages 8-19 months in their second RSV season get the shot if they’re in certain risk groups for severe disease.

For adults, the groups generally recommend everyone get the annual COVID-19 and flu shots, while adults 50-74 years of age get the RSV shot once if they have an increased risk of developing severe RSV.

RSV vaccinations are typically recommended in late summer and early fall .

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