Current vaccine advice from the medical experts
Americans heading into another fall and winter respiratory-virus season are getting vaccine advice in an unusual way this year: from a coalition of the nation’s leading medical organizations, according to The New York Times.
Traditionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its vaccine advisory committee have issued guidance. But the vaccine advisory committee is in legal limbo after a federal judge ruled in March that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unlawfully altered vaccine policy and improperly reconstituted the group. The major medical societies have acted together to provide comprehensive seasonal recommendations. These include The American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America has released recommendations Wednesday guided by an independent review conducted by the Vaccine Integrity Project (VIP) in collaboration with the American Medical Association.
The VIP, a group of public health researchers, reviewed hundreds of peer-reviewed studies on the safety and effectiveness of immunizations against influenza, covid-19 and RSV, a respiratory virus, and found no new safety concerns. Their recommendations include:
Adults (19-64) – Annual flu vaccine; adults 50-74 at risk of severe RSV – one-time RSV vaccine; Annual updated covid-19 vaccine
Older adults (65+) – Annual flu vaccine (high dose); one-time RSV for all adults 75+; Annual updated covid-19 vaccine followed by a second dose 6 months later to boost protection.
October is the best time for most people to get a flu vaccine, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians, because protection can wane over the course of the season. But people should still get vaccinated later if they miss that window and the flu is continuing to circulate.
Timing for the covid-19 vaccine depends in part on whether you have recently been infected. People who have not recently had covid-19 can get the updated vaccine now or this fall. Those who recently had a coronavirus infection can consider waiting four to six months before getting vaccinated, although getting the vaccine sooner is not considered harmful. Covid-19, flu and RSV vaccines can be safely given at the same visit.
Are you aging well?
Try these four simple tests to gauge your current strength, power, cardiovascular fitness and balance, all of which will influence your physical abilities as you age, according to experts in health and rehabilitation sciences.
- Sitting-Rising – The test is scored on a 10-point scale, 5 points for sitting down and 5 points for standing up. You lose a point for every hand, knee or other body part you use to help yourself. Anyone over 60 who gets an 8 is in very good shape, according to researchers at the Exercise Medicine Clinic in Brazil.
- Walking Speed – How fast someone walks at their normal gait is an important indicator of functional ability and vitality. To assess your walking speed, measure out about 13 feet on a straight, flat surface and time how long it takes you to cover the distance at your normal speed. People of all ages should aim for a little over three seconds total. Advice is to retest every few months because if it changes, that can indicate a problem.
- Grip Strength – This is also related to mortality. It indicates how active a person is in their daily life. Grip strength is usually assessed by a doctor or physical therapist using a dynamometer but another way to test is to do the farmer’s carry (walk for 60 seconds holding a heavy weight in each hand). A woman at 65 should aim to carry 25 pounds; at 85, 15 pounds; a 65-year-old man should aim for two 40-pound dumbbells; at 85, 25 pounders.
- As strength declines with age, so does balance and that raises the risk of falls. Testing is easy – just stand on one leg for 10 seconds.
Studies have shown that if you’re below average on any of these tests, you likely won’t fare long-term.
Worry about aging ages you
Anxiety about the aging process, especially fears of declining health, may lead to changes in how genes function, according to a study of 726 midlife women published in the February 2026 issue of Psychoneuroendocrinology. Women who felt more anxious about getting older tended to show faster epigenetic aging – meaning their bodies looked older at a cellular level, based on how their genes switched on and off.
While more typical factors that influence aging are easily identifiable such as UV light exposure, chronic stress, poor sleep, smoking, sedentary lifestyle and obesity, researchers are finding other less well-known factors also contribute to speeding up aging. They include:
- Exposure to bright light or loud music. Both are linked to elevated stress hormones and even cardiovascular strain
- Loneliness and social isolation confer comparable health risks to smoking.
- Gut health imbalance. A healthy diet optimizes the gut microbiome while highly processed foods can skew the balance between good and bad bacteria, causing inflammation that accelerates aging.
You can slow the clock by getting regular exercise, consistent, high-quality sleep, a plant-forward diet, strong social connections and a positive outlook and sense of purpose. For those who do those things, there’s sometimes a decade of difference in their biological aging, researchers say.
FDA has approved a new sunscreen ingredient
The ingredient is called bemotrizinol (BEMT) and while it’s new to us, it’s been used in European and Asian sunscreens for more than 20 years, according to an article in Harvard Health Publishing. Like other sunscreens it filters UVB and UVA rays but it’s more stable in sunlight than others, which means it may not need as many added ingredients to make it work and may not break down as quickly. It also is not absorbed into the bloodstream as many other sunscreen products on the market.
In the US, it will be listed as Parsol Shield, and become available in sunscreen this fall.
Combating loneliness
A loneliness epidemic is taking a toll on people’s physical and mental health, leading to higher rates of anxiety, depression, suicide, anger and violence. It also impacts on physical health, increasing the risk for dementia, stroke, diabetes, heart disease and early death. Studies have shown about one-third of all Americans report feeling lonely.
One effective way to cope with loneliness is to strengthen your existing relationships and reconnect with friends and family who may have drifted apart, according to researchers at Harvard Medical School.
Relationships take effort. If they aren’t nurtured, they can wither and fade. Try these tips for building deeper connections with existing family and friends:
- Set up regular times to get together.
- Tell them how much they mean to you.
- Try to listen as much as you speak.
- Minimize distractions such as checking your phone.
- Ask questions about their lives and activities.
For long-distance relationships, try one of these:
- Plan a weekly or monthly phone or video call.
- Send letters each month or text occasionally.
- Create a cooking club where you and a friend prepare the same meal and share tips and recipes.
- Read the same book or watch the same movie and then discuss it over the phone.
It takes effort to nurture relationships, but it can be one of the easiest and most rewarding ways to combat lonelines
