The recommended vaccination schedule for people in the United States aged 19 years and older has been released by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Clinical Guideline on the "Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule, United States, 2022" appears online today in Annals of Internal Medicine and in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The document features changes to the zoster, pneumococcal, and hepatitis B vaccines. COVID-19 vaccinations are now included in the notes section of the schedule and can be co-administered with other vaccines, according to ACIP.
The 2022 schedule is particularly important because the pandemic has caused many adults to fall behind in routine vaccinations, according to lead author Neil Murthy, MD, MPH, MSJ, of the CDC's Immunization Services Division, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, and colleagues.
"Providers should administer all due and overdue vaccines according to the routine immunization schedule during the same visit," the group wrote. "In addition, providers should implement strategies to catch up all patients on any overdue vaccines."
Among other changes appearing in the 2022 recommendations:
A new step 4 in the form of an appendix lists all the contraindications and precautions for each vaccine.
