Vaccines for Adults: What Is Recommended and When

Vaccination gets treated as a childhood topic, but the adult immunization schedule is more extensive than most people realize, and several important boosters and age-triggered vaccines are commonly missed simply because no one flags them at the right visit.

The boosters most adults are behind on

A Td or Tdap booster is recommended every 10 years for all adults, and if you have never had a Tdap dose as an adult (as opposed to Td alone), that is recommended at least once to cover pertussis, which has seen periodic resurgence in recent years. Many adults have not tracked their last tetanus booster and are overdue without realizing it.

Annual flu vaccination is recommended for all adults, not just older adults or those with chronic conditions, since flu strains shift each year and the vaccine formulation changes to match. "I never get the flu" is not a reliable predictor of future risk, and vaccination also reduces the severity of illness in people who do get infected despite vaccination.

Age-triggered vaccines that are easy to miss

At age 50, the recombinant shingles vaccine (Shingrix) becomes recommended, given as a two-dose series. This applies regardless of whether you had chickenpox as a child or received the childhood varicella vaccine, and regardless of prior shingles history. Shingles risk increases substantially with age due to waning immunity, and the vaccine significantly reduces both the risk of shingles and the risk of the chronic nerve pain (postherpetic neuralgia) that can follow it.

Pneumococcal vaccination is recommended for all adults 50 and older, and for younger adults with certain chronic conditions (diabetes, heart or lung disease, immunocompromising conditions). This is a vaccine many people assume is only for the elderly or chronically ill, but the age-50 threshold applies broadly, not just to people with additional risk factors.

Vaccines worth a specific conversation

RSV vaccination, more recently recommended for adults 60 and older (with some risk-based recommendations extending to younger adults with specific conditions), is newer and worth an explicit conversation with your clinician if you are in the eligible age range, since awareness of this recommendation still lags behind more established vaccines.

HPV vaccination, while most effective when given earlier, is approved and can still provide benefit for some adults up to age 45 who were not previously vaccinated, and is worth discussing if you fall into this range and were not vaccinated earlier.

Getting your own schedule checked

Given how many of these recommendations are age-triggered rather than symptom-triggered, they are easy to miss without a clinician actively reviewing your immunization history against your current age. Bringing up your vaccination history at your next visit, or asking directly which vaccines you may be due for, is a reasonable and often overdue conversation. Vaccines recommended by the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices are covered at no cost-sharing under most major insurance plans, including Medicare.