Which Flu Shot is Best for Seniors

Even though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has stated that the 2022-2022 influenza season is ending, a new suggestion highlights vaccine preferences for the 2022-2023 flu season. In recent years, the CDC has not recommended any flu vaccine over another for any age group.

On June 30, 2022, CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., M.P.H., adopted a committee recommendation to preferentially recommend the use of specific flu vaccines for seniors, including higher dose and adjuvanted flu vaccines.

While flu season severity can vary each year, the CDC says that people 65 years and older bear the most significant burden of severe disease, accounting for the majority of flu-related hospitalizations and deaths.

This recommendation was based on a review of available studies, which suggests that, in this age group, these vaccines are potentially more effective than standard-dose unadjuvanted flu vaccines.

This preference applies to Fluzone High-Dose Quadrivalent, Flublok Quadrivalent, and Fluad Quadrivalent flu vaccines.

People 65 and older should try to get one of the three preferentially recommended vaccines.

However, if one of these vaccines is unavailable at the time of administration, seniors should get a standard-dose flu vaccine instead.

The CDC still has no preferential recommendation for flu shots for people younger than 65, including infants six months of age.

A list of these flu vaccines is posted on this webpage.

Dr. Walensky's adoption of the committee's recommendation makes it official CDC policy, which will be further detailed in an upcoming Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) issued during the summer of 2022.

The latest MMWR was published on July 1, 2022, and highlighted these data points:

• Nationwide during week #25, 1.8% of patient visits were due to respiratory illness that included fever plus a cough or sore throat, also referred to as Influenza-like Illness (ILI). Multiple respiratory viruses are co-circulating, and the relative contribution of influenza virus infection to ILI varies by location.
• During week #25, the percentage of visits for respiratory illness was 8.0% among those 0-4 years, the highest age group.
• One additional influenza-associated pediatric death occurred during the 2021-2022 flu season. Therefore, a total of 31 influenza-associated pediatric deaths occurring during the 2021-2022 season have been reported to CDC.

Furthermore, information from the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates activity in the Southern Hemisphere's current flu season is worrisome.

The WHO published Influenza Update N° 422 on June 27, 2022, which reported increasing flu activity in some areas of the temperate Southern Hemisphere has been reported.

For example, the WHO reported influenza A detections continued to increase in some regions of Australia and New Zealand.

The good news is that updated flu shots for the 2022-2023 flu season in the USA will become available in local pharmacies and clinics this August.

And the CDC supports the co-administration of COVID-19 booster doses with the annual flu shot.

Note: The CDC and WHO information were manually curated for mobile readership.