Every adult, every year
Two standing items cover all adults on the CDC schedule: influenza vaccination annually (with higher-dose or adjuvanted formulations preferred at 65 and older), and tetanus-diphtheria maintenance: one dose of Tdap if you never had one as an adult, then a Td or Tdap booster every 10 years. Tdap also has a per-pregnancy dose for pregnant people. If you cannot remember your last tetanus booster, that usually answers the question.
Your 50s: two switches flip
Fifty is the schedule's busiest birthday. Shingles: the CDC schedule calls for a two-dose series of recombinant zoster vaccine (Shingrix) at age 50 or older, given 2 to 6 months apart, regardless of previous chickenpox, shingles, or the older Zostavax vaccine. Pneumococcal: adults 50 and older who have never had a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine get one dose of PCV15, PCV20 or PCV21; if PCV15 is the one used, a dose of PPSV23 follows. Both moved younger in recent years (shingles risk rises steeply from midlife, and the pneumococcal age dropped from 65 to 50 in 2024), so plenty of people in their 50s are behind without knowing it.
Your 60s and 70s
RSV vaccination is routine as a single dose at 75 and older, and risk-based for adults 50 to 74 with conditions that raise the risk of severe RSV disease (chronic heart or lung disease among them); it is not currently an annual vaccine. At 65, the flu recommendation upgrades to the higher-dose or adjuvanted products. COVID-19 dosing is set season by season; the 2025 schedule gives adults 65 and older a two-or-more-dose recommendation for the current formulation, with everyone else at one or more per the notes.
Conditions that move the schedule
Immunocompromise, diabetes, chronic heart, lung, liver and kidney disease, asplenia and pregnancy each pull specific vaccines earlier or add doses; shingles vaccination, for example, starts at 19 for immunocompromised adults, and the pneumococcal risk list begins at 19 too. The clean move is to bring your conditions and vaccine history to one visit, or check the CDC's adult schedule tables directly (they are updated each year and dated). Our screenings-by-age tool pairs the vaccine ages with the screening tests for your decade.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need the shingles vaccine if I never had chickenpox?
Per the CDC schedule, yes at 50 and older: the two-dose Shingrix series is recommended regardless of previous chickenpox or shingles history. Almost all US adults born before 1980 carry the virus.
What happened to the pneumonia vaccine at 65?
The age moved. Since 2024 the routine pneumococcal recommendation starts at 50, one conjugate dose (PCV15, PCV20 or PCV21), with PPSV23 following only when PCV15 was the starter. If you already completed vaccination under the older rules, you generally do not restart.
Is the RSV shot yearly like the flu shot?
No. RSV vaccination is currently a single dose (routine at 75+, risk-based at 50 to 74), and the CDC notes additional doses are not recommended after it.
