CDC panel lowers age for key vaccine. What older adults need to know.

It started with a cough that wouldn’t go away.

Before she knew it, Karyne Jones was hospitalized with pneumonia in January 2018. Even after the bacteria cleared her body, it took three months for her to recover from the symptoms.

At age 63, she was not eligible for the vaccine that would have protected her against pneumococcal pneumonia.

“I dodged a bullet, but that was only because I was relatively healthy,” says Jones, now 70. “I think about the people who aren’t and how that would really compromise their system.”

This age barrier may soon change. On Wednesday, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel voted to lower the recommended age for older adults to get their first pneumococcal vaccine.

Panelists also voted to recommend an additional COVID-19 vaccine for people 65 and older. Here’s what older adults need to know about the changes in the CDC panel’s recommendations.

Pneumococcal vaccine for middle-aged patients

On Wednesday, members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to lower the recommended age for the pneumococcal vaccine from 65 to 50 years and older.

The vaccine, which older adults need only once, protects against pneumococcal bacteria, the leading cause of pneumonia in older adults, said Dr. Jiansheng Zhao, an internal medicine physician at the SOMOS Community Care network.

According to the CDC, pneumococcal pneumonia kills about 1 in 20 older adults infected with the bacteria.

About 100 known strains of pneumococcal bacteria can also cause ear infections, meningitis, and other infections. The latest vaccine can protect against 20 of the most serious strains.

Lowering the recommended age for the vaccine will increase eligibility for people under 65 who have health problems that make them more likely to develop serious illness from the bacteria. Data from Wednesday’s meeting showed that about 90% of people between the ages of 50 and 64 have at least one condition that puts them at risk.

The American Lung Association says adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, asthma, diabetes or chronic heart disease are at greater risk for pneumococcal pneumonia.

Expanding eligibility will also help address health disparities, as racial and ethnic minorities are more likely than their white peers to develop these chronic conditions, said Jones, who was hospitalized with the disease in 2018 and is president and CEO of the National Caucus and Center on Black. Aging.

Access to the vaccine is “really important,” she said, “because of the risk factors we have in our community.”

COVID, RSV, flu: Here you will find all the vaccines recommended for you this year

Get a new COVID-19 vaccine, even if you received one this fall

ACIP members also voted to recommend adults 65 and older receive a second dose of the updated COVID-19 vaccine this fall. Eligible patients should ask their provider the best time to take an additional dose.

Health experts say older adults are more likely to experience the worst effects of the virus: they are more likely to develop more severe cases, be hospitalized and die.

According to data presented at the meeting on Wednesday, two-thirds of adult hospitalizations due to COVID-19 occurred in people aged 65 and older. Experts hope an extra dose of vaccine will protect older adults from these effects.

Emergency room visits, deaths and COVID-19 cases have steadily declined since peaking in August 2024, according to CDC data. However, health experts expect this trend won’t last long once people start traveling for the holidays and colder temperatures force them to gather indoors, increasing the risk of virus transmission.

The CDC reported that KP.3.1.1 was the dominant COVID-19 variant circulating in the US, accounting for more than 57% of all cases. The second most common variant is XEC, which accounts for almost 11% of cases.

RSV vaccine recommendations unchanged

ACIP members have not reviewed the RSV vaccine, but health experts say it is important that older Americans get the vaccination if they haven’t already.

This is the second year that health care providers have offered vaccines to protect adults against RSV, the respiratory syncytial virus. However, according to the CDC, only 29% of eligible patients have received the vaccine.

Experts say vaccine fatigue – when people are tired of having to take multiple vaccines each year – may partly explain the low vaccination rate. Jones said the RSV vaccine is also relatively new and older adults may not know they are eligible.

“Two years ago they weren’t even talking about RSV and now it’s here,” she said.

A study published last week suggests the vaccine protects older adults from the worst effects of the disease. Researchers found the vaccine to be 80% effective against hospital admissions in people aged 60 and over, according to the report published last week in The Lancet.

The RSV vaccine is recommended for all adults aged 75 and older and adults aged 60 to 74 who are at increased risk for severe disease.

The recordings are not necessary every year. Federal regulators recommend a single dose of RSV vaccine, so if you were vaccinated last year, you won’t need another dose this year. Officials have said they will reassess whether additional doses are needed.

RSV is the leading cause of hospitalizations among newborns and younger children, but it also affects later in life, causing more than 177,000 hospitalizations and 14,000 deaths annually among older adults.

Jones said organizations like the National Caucus and the Center on Black Aging are working hard to share accurate information about availability and promote access for the entire community.

“We’re trying to get people to be more preventative with their health care instead of waiting for a problem to arise,” she said. “That’s what vaccines do.”

Contributing: Karen Weintraub, USA TODAY

Adrianna Rodriguez can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pneumonia, changes to COVID vaccine guidelines for older adults