Frequently asked questions about vaccines for adults
Immunization recommendations may be confusing — especially in the age of COVID-19. Here’s help in figuring out which vaccines adults may need and when they may need them.
If you signed up for a COVID-19 vaccine recently, you might have been asked if you wanted to receive other vaccines as well. Tetanus? Shingles? Hepatitis B? Learn how to confirm your current vaccination status to help you decide which ones to get and when.
In this article:
Why are vaccines important?
Vaccines play a critical part in helping prevent the spread of infectious diseases. They help safeguard people from getting severely sick — or even dying — and help provide protection against dangerous complications caused by these preventable diseases.
If you work or spend time in large group settings, getting vaccinated can also help protect the entire ecosystem of people who are part of that institution. Certain state laws can mandate vaccines for specific groups, including health care workers in facilities with vulnerable people (e.g., hospitals and nursing homes), children in day care or school and young adults in college. These laws vary from state to state.
How to help prevent getting sick
Vaccines are just one part of protection against infectious disease. They provide an important contribution to an overall larger precautionary strategy. For example, with infectious diseases that can be spread through respiratory droplets, high-quality masks provide a physical barrier that serves to protect ourselves and others.
Using a layered approach works best. “In addition to getting vaccinated and taking other precautions, we should also support our immune system by eating healthy, getting enough sleep, finding ways to address stress and optimizing our health by controlling any chronic conditions, like high blood pressure or diabetes,” says Farshad Fani Marvasti, MD, MPH, associate professor and Director of Public Health, Prevention and Health Promotion at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix.
How to get vaccination records
To confirm your vaccination history, first contact your doctor’s office. They may have a record of your previous vaccinations. If you don’t have a regular primary care physician, you may need to do some digging.
Check with your parents, look in old baby books, call schools you attended that required vaccines or, if you served in the military, reach out to the National Personnel Records Center. You can also look up your state’s department of health website to see if they have ways to access immunization records. If you received a vaccine from a pharmacy, ask the pharmacy for those immunization records or log in to their website to print out the information.
If none of that leads to success, you still have options. There are blood tests that can be done to check for immunity against certain diseases, including hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella. If you received vaccines for these conditions in the past, the tests may be able to pick up the antibody titers (the level of antibodies you have in your blood). “Many universities and some businesses require these antibody titers to verify vaccination,” Dr. Marvasti adds.
If you don’t have sufficient antibodies present in your blood tests, they may recommend boosters. More broadly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that you get vaccinated if there is any uncertainty around your vaccination history.
Which vaccines can be administered at the same time?
The CDC has a recommended vaccine schedule for children, adolescents and adults on its website. However, the CDC cautions that there are certain instances when people should not get recommended vaccines or should at least wait to get them — for example, because of their age, health conditions or other factors. Having a weakened immune system or being pregnant, for example, might be a reason to skip or delay certain vaccines. You should talk with your health care provider for guidance on all vaccines and when would be the best time to receive them.
Administering multiple vaccines at once, the CDC says, is safe and has several advantages. For example, it can be desirable to limit the number of times patients need to visit the doctor’s office or other health care provider. To reduce the number of shots a patient receives during such a visit, some vaccines are offered as combination vaccines — meaning two or more have been combined into a single shot.
For adults, the CDC states that it’s OK to get the COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccines (like the measles-mumps-rubella, or MMR, vaccine) on the same day. The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has also declared that all live vaccines (live attenuated influenza; measles, mumps and rubella (MMR); oral typhoid; varicella; and yellow fever) can be given at the same time if indicated. Just be aware that certain combinations of vaccines may cause temporary side effects to occur more frequently. Check with your health care provider first if you’ve experienced side effects from simultaneous vaccinations in the past. You may be able to split up combination vaccines and get them separately.
Which vaccines are important for adults?
According to the CDC, there are many vaccines recommended for adults ages 19 and older.
Because millions of adults were vaccinated against polio as children and the disease is now very rare in the United States, the polio vaccine (IPV) is not on the CDC adult immunization schedule. (To find out if you received the polio vaccine, check with your doctor or your state’s immunization registry, or try one of the solutions outlined above.)
Some patients may require polio vaccination as an adult, such as those who did not receive the vaccine as a child and are considered an at-risk adult — meaning that you travel to areas of the world where polio is common, work in a laboratory where the poliovirus is handled or treat patients who could have polio.
While polio was believed to have been eliminated from the United States more than three decades ago, rare cases in unvaccinated individuals can still occur.
Here are some ACIP recommended vaccines for adults. When considering a vaccine, be sure to speak with a health care provider about the age requirements, special situations, guidance around certain medical conditions and spacing between doses if more than one dose is required. (You can learn more at the CVS Health® immunization resources page.)
Influenza inactivated (IIV4), influenza recombinant (RIV4) or influenza live attenuated (LAIV4)
- A dose of one of these three vaccines should be received annually.
- The live attenuated vaccine is only suggested for certain adults that are 18 to 49 years old.
- Adults who are 65 years and older are eligible for an age-appropriate influenza vaccine such as a high-dose or adjuvanted vaccine.
Tetanus and diphtheria (Td) or tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (Tdap)
- One dose of Tdap should be received at or after age 11 and then a booster every 10 years (or sooner for certain wound management situations).
- One dose of Tdap (not Td) should also be received for each pregnancy, preferable in the early part of gestational weeks 27 to 36.
Zoster recombinant (RZV), commonly known as shingles
- Ages 19 to 49: two doses for immunocompromising health conditions
- Ages 50 and older: two doses
Pneumococcal (PCV15, PCV20 and PPSV23), commonly known as pneumonia
- Ages 19 to 64 with certain underlying medical conditions or other risk factors
- All adults ages 65 and older
Other vaccines recommended for certain adults (ask your health care provider if any of these are right for you):
- Hepatitis A vaccine
- Hepatitis B vaccine
- Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine
- Measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine
- Varicella (VAR or chicken pox) vaccine
- Meningococcal vaccine
- Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine
COVID-19 vaccine boosters for adults
The ACIP recommends that adults get immunized with one of the COVID-19 vaccines. A number of them are currently recommended for routine use by the CDC.
Where can I get vaccinated?
Consult your health care provider to confirm the vaccines you’ll need and where you should get them. CVS offers a variety of different vaccines. You can learn more about the ones that might be right for you and sign up for a vaccination at CVS all in one place.
This content is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Consult with your health care provider before relying on any information you obtain here, changing any health care practices, using any recommended products or taking any vitamins or supplements.