U.S. Medical Groups Issue Flu, COVID Vaccine Guidance Independent of CDC

• The CDC has not yet issued new COVID-19 or RSV recommendations for the 2026–2027 season and has instead carried over last year’s flu guidance.
• Four medical groups released their own recommendations in September, each covering a different population: children, adults, pregnant people, and those with weakened immune systems.
• All four groups recommend a flu shot for everyone 6 months and older, and their COVID and RSV advice varies by age and risk.
• Vaccinations are available at major pharmacies across the United States.

Pediatricians are turning to major medical organizations rather than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for guidance on vaccines for the fall and winter respiratory virus season, which runs from October through mid-May.

That’s because the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee — the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) — hasn’t issued new COVID-19 or RSV recommendations this season. Instead, the agency has only carried over last year’s flu guidance.

Despite the lack of CDC guidance, four top medical groups have released recommendations for the 2026–2027 respiratory virus season on September 2, each covering a different group of patients:

• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for children
• American Academy of Family Physicians for adults
• American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for pregnant people
• Infectious Diseases Society of America for people with weakened immune systems

The American Medical Association and the Vaccine Integrity Project at the University of Minnesota reviewed hundreds of recent studies of the flu, COVID, and RSV vaccines. Their findings, published in JAMA on the same day, informed all four sets of recommendations. 

The review found the vaccines continue to protect against severe illness, hospitalization, and death, and identified no new safety concerns, according to the AMA.

The people who wrote this season’s recommendations are “in some cases the same experts or the same kinds of experts that would have informed the CDC,” said Benjamin Lopman, PhD, professor of epidemiology and global health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health.

Recommendations for the 2026–2027 respiratory virus season

All four medical groups recommend the flu shot for everyone 6 months and older.

COVID and RSV recommendations vary by age and risk. Flu, COVID, and RSV shots are already available at major pharmacy chains.

Flu vaccine

• Everyone 6 months and older.
• Some children need two doses, given about a month apart.
• Adults 65 and older should get an enhanced flu vaccine — high dose, adjuvanted, recombinant or mRNA — when one is available, but shouldn’t delay vaccination to find one.

COVID-19 vaccine

• All adults 19 and older.
• Adults 65 and older should get two doses each season, the second six months after the first
• Children 6 through 23 months.
• Children and teens 2 through 18 who are at higher risk of severe illness, or whose parents want them protected.
• Anyone pregnant, planning a pregnancy, or nursing.

RSV shot

• One dose for adults 75 and older, and for adults 50 to 74 at increased risk.
• One dose during pregnancy.
• A preventive antibody shot for infants under 8 months or entering their first RSV season who didn’t receive protection during pregnancy, and for some children up to 19 months with certain health conditions.

What to know about this year’s flu shot

The CDC’s flu vaccination guidance page, updated September 1, points to an interim document and notes that updates “are forthcoming.”

The interim guidance keeps last year’s recommendations in place, citing “legal uncertainties and inquiries.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved an mRNA flu vaccine for adults 50 and older in August, the first of its kind.

In a clinical trial of 40,703 adults 50 and older, people who received it had about 26% fewer cases of lab-confirmed flu-like illness than people who received a standard-dose shot, according to the JAMA influenza review.

“Children 6 months and older should get a seasonal flu vaccine near the start of flu season, usually in September or October,” said Andi Shane, MD, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

A flu shot “can help lower a child’s risk of serious illness, hospitalization, and complications like pneumonia or dehydration,” Shane told Healthline.

Graham Tse, MD, chief medical officer of MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital in Long Beach, CA., said that respiratory viruses usually start circulating around this time.

“Getting a shot now or in the next month or two is optimal, though there is benefit to receiving the vaccines through the season into the spring if you did not receive a vaccine earlier,” he told Healthline.

What to know about this year’s COVID vaccine

The CDC hasn’t issued new COVID vaccine recommendations for this season.

The CDC’s most recent guidance, from last year, advises consulting with a healthcare professional rather than recommending vaccination.

The vaccines themselves cleared a different process. The FDA approved updated shots on August 27, reformulated to match the variants currently circulating. Its vaccine advisory committee, which is separate from the CDC panel, met in May to select this year’s strain.

Having had COVID before doesn’t change the recommendation, Shane said. The virus changes over time, and a child who had it last year “may not be well protected against the strains spreading now.”

What to know about the RSV shot

The CDC hasn’t published new RSV guidance for this season, either.

Protection for infants works differently. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends a vaccine during pregnancy to protect the baby after birth.

Infants whose mothers weren’t vaccinated instead get what Tse described to Healthline as “an injection of antibodies which help protect the recipient from RSV and serious illness.”

RSV is “not a simple cold,” Tse said. It can be serious in infants and in children with conditions that raise their risk of complications.

Why the CDC isn’t issuing this guidance

Since 1964, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has reviewed the evidence and set the vaccine recommendations most American doctors follow.

That was disrupted last year when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) dismissed ACIP’s members and appointed replacements.

Despite a successful court challenge in March, an expert-led ACIP has not been restored.

“The science is as strong as ever,” Lopman told Healthline. “What’s changed is that CDC and the ACIP have not been there to provide the evidence-based guidance.”

The absence of a single federal voice “can create confusion for parents when there’s a lot of misinformation out there already about vaccines,” he said.

“It has made doctors’ work more difficult,” Tse said. Parents are declining vaccines more often, he said, and doctors are spending more time explaining and defending the science behind them.

Healthline contacted HHS for this article and did not receive a response.

How to talk with your doctor about vaccines

Shane said that her recommendation to families is to continue following the AAP-endorsed vaccine schedule.

She suggests parents come in with specific questions: Is my child eligible? When should they get it? Does their age, health history, or contact with someone at higher risk change what’s recommended?

“Pediatricians are there to help families understand the options and make decisions that feel right for their child,” she said.

For now, the societies are covering the work the federal government isn’t. “I think we can fill that gap for a while,” Lopman said. “But I think it’s really important that ACIP… is reestablished.”