Why Adults 65-Plus Should Get a Spring COVID Shot

Doctors and virus experts say many older adults will benefit from a mid-year boost

Rachel Nania,

Updated March 06, 2025

AARP

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Published February 29, 2024

/ Updated March 06, 2025

a target painted on a covid germ cell with a needle sticking into it

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National data suggests the rough respiratory illness season may finally be winding down. Declining trends, however, shouldn’t be mistaken for lax precautions. Doctors and virus experts say it’s just about time for older adults to roll up their sleeves for another dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

In October 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a recommendation that people ages 65 and older get a spring shot of the 2024-25 COVID-19 vaccine to boost their immune systems and restore protection that has waned since the fall, when the updated vaccines became available. Immunocompromised individuals — those who have cancer or take certain medications to treat an autoimmune disorder, for example — are also advised to get another COVID vaccine.

“Those two groups are the ones that are now consistently making up the population that’s suffering from severe COVID-19, meaning emergency room visits or hospitalizations,” says Andrew Pekosz, a professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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In early January, the COVID hospitalization rate for adults younger than 50 was 1.0 per 100,000 people; for those 65-plus, it was 18.3 per 100,000. And during last year’s respiratory illness season, adults 65 and older accounted for 70 percent of all COVID-related hospitalizations.

Why do older adults need a boost?

A big reason has to do with age-related changes that make it more difficult for older adults to fight off an infection, explains Rachel M. Presti, M.D., a professor of medicine and medical director of the Infectious Disease Clinical Research Unit at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. This is not unique to COVID-19. Older adults are more susceptible to severe illness from other bugs, such as influenza, which is why a high-dose version of the flu shot is recommended for people 65-plus.

Additionally, the COVID vaccines “provide really pretty good protection in the short term, but by the time you get to month four, five and six, that protection begins to wane,” William Schaffner, M.D., professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, told AARP.

And, unlike flu, which typically strikes during the fall and winter, COVID-19 is active year-round, which is why it has surged in the summer months. “So this six-month boost is meant to sort of kick that [immunity] back up to high levels of protection until the following fall,” Pekosz says, when people are typically vaccinated for flu and COVID-19.

When should you get the COVID-19 vaccine?

The recommendation from the CDC is for people age 65-plus to get the COVID-19 vaccine six months after their last dose. So, if you were vaccinated in September or October, you’re just about due for another.

If you waited on the vaccine in the fall and got it more recently, however, you can still get another dose this spring. While the CDC advises a six-month stretch between the two shots, the agency says the minimum time is two months apart, “which allows flexibility to get the second dose prior to typical COVID-19 surges, travel, life events and health care visits.”

Three different COVID-19 vaccines are available at pharmacies and health clinics, including an mRNA vaccine from Moderna, an mRNA vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech and a protein-based vaccine from Novavax.

Less than a quarter of U.S. adults (about 23 percent) received the latest COVID-19 vaccine as of Feb. 22, federal data shows; an estimated 25 percent of adults 65 and older had received the shot as of November 2024, according to Medicare data.

How effective is the COVID vaccine?

The strains of coronavirus currently circulating have drifted from the variant the vaccines target. “But there have been a number of studies that show that the vaccine still does induce what we call cross-reactive antibodies and that it will recognize the currently circulating variants,” Pekosz says.

“So it looks like it’s still effective,” Presti adds.

Getting the vaccine this spring doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t catch COVID-19, but it does reduce the risk that you’ll experience severe illness if you get infected.

“Thousands of people died of COVID-19 [in the past year], and the vast majority of them either haven’t been vaccinated or haven’t been vaccinated recently. So there certainly still is data that says that the vaccine is a safe and effective way to minimize severe disease,” Pekosz says.

The COVID-19 vaccine can also help prevent the spread of the illness, Presti points out. “And that’s part of why vaccines are so effective,” she says. “It’s not just to protect you; it’s really to protect everyone around you as well because then, even if you get infected, you won’t transmit as much to other people, because you won’t be producing as much virus because your immune system will be able to clear it.”

Heading into spring, it’s “still useful” to think of other ways to lower your chances of getting COVID-19, Presti adds. Wash your hands often, she says, and consider keeping a mask handy in case you’re out in public and people around you are coughing or sneezing. “It’s still a very legitimate way to protect yourself, in addition to getting the vaccine,” she says.

Editor's note: This article, originally published February 29, 2024, has been updated to reflect new information.

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