Four national medical societies released their own flu, COVID-19 and RSV vaccine recommendations on September 2 rather than wait for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to update its schedule. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Infectious Diseases Society of America each covered the patients they treat, and JAMA published three evidence reviews the same day, showing the data behind the advice.
The groups moved on their own after what the JAMA authors describe as massive disruptions to the CDC’s advisory committee, ACIP, disruptions serious enough that the American Medical Association passed an emergency resolution in June 2025.
Key takeaways
- Updated COVID-19 shots cut hospitalization risk somewhere between 19.5% and 55% in adults 18 and older, with no new safety signals.
- ACOG issued its own immunization recommendations for pregnancy, separate from the CDC schedule.
- All three reviews are published in the open, so anyone can check the numbers behind the recommendations.
What the reviews found
The COVID-19 review pulled together 155 publications. Studies from the 2024-2025 season and later found that an updated shot was tied to 19.5% to 55% lower risk of COVID-19-related hospitalization in adults 18 and older, compared with people who were unvaccinated or had not had a current-season shot. The authors reported “no new safety signals” in the studies eligible for the update.
The influenza review covered 69 studies. In adults 65 and older, flu shots were tied to roughly 19% to 43% lower hospitalization risk depending on the season. In infants and children, effectiveness against influenza hospitalization ranged from 28% to 67%.
The RSV review covered 75 studies. In older adults, the drop in RSV hospitalization risk was larger in the first season after vaccination than it was beyond 18 months. Maternal vaccination lowered the risk of infant RSV hospitalization, with efficacy estimates ranging from 51.0% to 70.0%.
Dr. Kumar’s take
When official guidance forks, the useful move is not to pick a team, it is to read the evidence tables. That is what separates this release from most vaccine news: JAMA published detailed evidence reviews for all three pathogens the same day, effect sizes and ranges attached.
These numbers are good, not miraculous. A cut in COVID hospitalization risk of anywhere from 19.5% to 55% in adults is meaningful in a disease that still fills hospital beds. The flu numbers are more modest and swing by season, which is what flu vaccine data has always looked like. The RSV waning pattern is the most clinically interesting piece, because protection drops after the first season, which affects timing rather than whether to vaccinate.
Most of this data is observational rather than randomized, and observational vaccine studies run into healthy-user bias, where people who show up for shots also take better care of themselves. That inflates estimates without erasing them, so treat the percentages as approximate. The same pattern appears in work on the high-dose flu shot and lower Alzheimer’s risk and on a new mRNA flu vaccine that beat standard shots: the benefit concentrates in older and higher-risk people.
What it means for you
If the CDC schedule posted at your pharmacy does not match what your own physician’s specialty society says, that gap is real, and it is a paperwork problem rather than a data problem. The detailed recommendations by age and vaccine type are available through the American Medical Association.
If you are pregnant, ask about the RSV vaccine and how its timing lines up with your due date. If you had an RSV vaccine two seasons ago, ask whether your protection has faded rather than assuming it holds. Free vaccines for children continue through the federal Vaccines for Children program, which supplies shots for roughly half the nation’s children.
Bring the question to your own clinician, not to a headline. The evidence behind this year’s advice is published and open, which is more than can usually be said during a fight like this.