Is it true that ACIP and CDC now recommend certain influenza vaccines over others for people age 65 years and older?

Aging decreases the body’s ability to develop a good immune response after getting influenza vaccine, which places older people at greater risk of severe illness from influenza.

After years of review and deliberation, ACIP voted in June 2022 to recommend that all adults age 65 and older should preferentially receive one of the three different vaccine products that evidence suggests are likely to perform better than standard dose, unadjuvanted vaccines: Flublok recombinant quadrivalent influenza vaccine (RIV4, Sanofi), Fluad quadrivalent adjuvanted vaccine (aIIV4, CSL Seqirus), and Fluzone High-Dose quadrivalent vaccine (HD-IIV, Sanofi). However, if none of these three vaccines is available at the time of vaccination, any age-appropriate influenza vaccine may be administered.

For a thorough review of the evidence for this recommendation, see the 2022 published ACIP recommendations for influenza vaccination: www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/rr/pdfs/rr7101a1-H.pdf.