The Power of Vaccines Across a Generation

Growing awareness of the high-dose flu vaccine Fluzone, which was approved for use 10 years ago for older adults in particular, could help bridge the gulf between expectations and reality. The vaccine, says L.J. Tan, chief strategy officer at Immunize.org, helps compensate for the “double whammy” the elderly face from influenza. “Not only are they more susceptible to flu complications if they do get sick, but their bodies don't respond as robustly to the flu vaccine when they get inoculated,” he explains. The higher dose contains four times the antigens of the regular shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Other adult vaccines that fewer people are taking advantage of than experts would like are the pneumococcal vaccine, first licensed in 1977, which wards off the most common flu complication for the elderly, and the newer shingles vaccine — a rock star of effectiveness that's especially important to boomers, who more than likely had chicken pox as kids.

The first Shingles vaccine, Zostavax, was approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Adminstration (FDA) in 2006, about the time the boomers facing retirement age really started to need one, as their aging immune systems became more likely to allow the chickenpox virus to reactivate as a painful blistering rash, with the potential for serious nerve pain. But although Zostavax was only 50 percent effective at fighting shingles, a vaccine that is over 90 percent effective emerged in 2017: Shingrix. “It's like the chickenpox vaccine on steroids, and the hope is it'll keep the virus at bay for another 30 to 40 years,” Najera says.

Now the world waits for a safe, effective COVID-19 vaccine — which is especially critical to a population of people 65 and older who've represented eight out of 10 deaths during the pandemic. But experts say that with this inoculation, as with others, expectations may need to be managed. “It may be 50 percent effective for moderate to severe diseases, just like the flu, and last for a couple years, if not a little longer” says Paul Offit, M.D., director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

In the meantime, it's important to make sure you're up to date on all your needed vaccines, Tan stresses. “You don't want to get any of these diseases and end up in the hospital at the same time COVID-19 is raging around you,” he says. Our guide to every vaccine you need after 50 can help you make sure you're up to date — and keep you, and your generation, healthier for the long haul.