Editor's note: This story was updated on May 22, 2025, to include new information about FDA plans to change COVID-19 vaccine recommendations.
May 22, 2025 – COVID-19 vaccines are making headlines, as government officials appear poised to scale back recommendations and the FDA approved the Novavax vaccine with new limitations.
Here's what infectious disease doctors are saying and how any of this could affect you.
1. Your yearly COVID booster recommendation may change.
What to know: Federal health officials may stop recommending annual fall COVID shots for healthy young and middle-aged adults and for children. While not yet official, two major moves this week foreshadow the change: One message came in the form of a viewpoint article published in TheNew England Journal of Medicine, and the second from a between-the-lines interpretation of the agency's approval of the COVID vaccine Novavax.
Novavax, used under emergency authorization since 2022, now has full approval for adults 65 and older and high-risk people ages 12 and up.
FDA vaccine advisers are meeting today for a discussion that usually determines the updated formulation of annual COVID shots given in the fall. The advisers study changes in the virus and propose formulations they expect will offer the best protection.
Vinayak Prasad, MD, MPH, director of the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, opened the meeting by citing plans to scale back COVID vaccine recommendations and to do more testing of the shots among children and healthy young adults.
"We still want to give people a little more time to digest the policy. We're still interested in soliciting questions and feedback and thoughts," he told meeting attendees, adding that the goal of today's gathering is to provide "guidance of what strain to select for COVID vaccines going forward."
What it means for you: If you're young and healthy, the government may stop recommending annual COVID shots for you.
"Even if they go that route – and I don't know that they will – but even if they do, there will always be a proviso that says any parent who wishes their child to be protected against COVID can receive the vaccine," said William Schaffner, MD, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
But if guidelines change, insurers could drop coverage for those no longer recommended, though they may choose to continue it.
Scientists have debated whether to keep recommending the vaccine for everyone. In September, the World Health Organization said that healthy adults and children with at least one vaccination dose no longer needed routine revaccination.
A meeting of independent advisers to the CDC in June will likely be the next clue about what's ahead. That meeting typically includes recommendations from independent infectious disease experts about who should get vaccinated.
2. Chances are you need a COVID shot now, anyway.
What to know: Another summer COVID surge is predicted. Last year, positive COVID tests skyrocketed starting in mid-May, peaking at nearly 18% in August. That's the second highest weekly test positivity rate on record at the CDC.
"We all know about the winter surge, but there's also a summer surge, which can be just as high," said Schaffner. "There are standing recommendations from the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices that people who are at high risk should actually receive two doses a year."
What it means for you: If you're 65 or older or you have a chronic medical condition, you "should think seriously about getting a COVID vaccine now and then another one in the fall," Schaffner said. The CDC list of chronic medical conditions includes:
- Diabetes
- Lung conditions
- Liver disease
- Kidney disease
- Obesity
- Heart disease
- Mental health problems
- Cancer
Worth noting: The list of conditions warranting twice-yearly COVID shots is so broad that much of the U.S. population qualifies – and would likely continue to qualify even if vaccine guidance changes.
"All those persons, should they become infected with COVID, have a greater likelihood of developing more serious illness. And by serious, we mean requiring hospitalization," Schaffner said.
At the height of last summer's COVID surge, there were more than 1,300 weekly deaths.
3.If you're pregnant, you should consider a COVID shot now, too.
What to know: "My crystal ball is cloudy, I can't anticipate how my colleagues will vote, but I suspect that the recommendation will continue" for pregnant people, Schaffner said.
That's because babies from newborn to 6 months old are among those most often hospitalized for severe COVID. COVID vaccination during pregnancy cuts hospitalization risk by 52%.
What it means for you: If you're pregnant, getting vaccinated can protect you and your baby. When a pregnant person gets vaccinated, antibodies travel through the placenta and are passed to the fetus, protecting the newborn during the first critical months of life.
Pregnant people are also at high risk of severe COVID, "which can make them more susceptible to pregnancy complications and even death," said Christopher Zahn, MD, chief of clinical practice for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. "Vaccination remains the best way for them to protect themselves and their pregnancy."
