In 2023, people who received the updated Covid vaccine covering the new Covid-19 variant saw greater protection against illness and hospitalization than those who did not. To date, hundreds of millions of people have safely received a COVID-19 vaccine under the most intense vaccine safety monitoring in United States history.
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.
The virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, is always changing and protection from COVID-19 vaccines declines over time. Receiving an updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine can restore and enhance protection against the virus variants currently responsible for most infections and hospitalizations in the United States. COVID-19 vaccination also reduces the chance of suffering the effects of Long COVID, which can develop during or following acute infection and last for an extended duration.
Flu Vaccine Recommendation 2024-2025
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. Most persons need only one vaccine every season. September and October are considered the best times for most people to be vaccinated.
Updated 2024-2025 flu vaccines will all be trivalent and will protect against an H1N1, H3N2 and a B/Victoria lineage virus.