The 6 Vaccines All Grandparents Should Get

Influenza Vaccine

In the United States, an estimated 12,000 to 52,000 people die every year from flu-related causes. Hundreds of thousands have been hospitalized from this ever-evolving respiratory infection.

Older adults are at the highest risk for developing severe illness and death from the flu. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between 70% and 85% of flu-related deaths are in adults 65 and over. Between 50% to 70% of flu-related hospitalizations occur in this age group.

Grandparents need to get the flu shot not just to protect themselves but also the youngest members of their families. Until babies receive their first dose at 6 months, they are extremely vulnerable to flu complications.

Tdap Vaccine

If you have a grandchild on the way, your healthcare provider may advise you to get the Tdap vaccine if you did not receive the vaccine as an adolescent. The vaccine protects against three diseases: tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis ("whooping cough").

Protecting yourself against pertussis is especially important, as it can be passed to newborns in whom the infection is often serious. Between 2000 and 2017, 84% of deaths from pertussis were in infants younger than 2 months of age.

Even if you have no grandchildren, the CDC recommends that everyone get the Tdap or Td (tetanus-diphtheria) booster dose every 10 years.

Pneumococcal Vaccine

While pertussis is often passed from adults to young children, pneumococcus—a bacterium that can cause pneumonia, meningitis, encephalitis, and other severe illnesses—can often be passed from children to older adults.

In children, pneumococcus generally causes mild illnesses like ear infections. But, in older adults, pneumococcus is a leading cause of pneumonia, which is more likely to cause death the older you are.

According to the CDC, the risk of death from pneumonia in people 75 to 84 is three times that of people 65 to 74. In people 85 and over, the risk increases by over 10-fold compared to the 65-74 age group.

Shingles Vaccine

If you are 50 or over, you should also talk to your healthcare provider about getting the shingles vaccine. This is true even if you've already had shingles (a.k.a. herpes zoster) in the past.

Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful, blistering rash. It rarely causes death, but it can lead to serious complications, including post-herpetic neuropathic pain and herpes zoster ophthalmicus. Older adults and those who are immunocompromised are more likely to be hospitalized for shingles.

You can't give shingles to your grandchildren. However, if your grandchilden haven't had chickenpox or been vaccinated against chickenpox, you can give them chickenpox if you have active shingles.

Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox (varicella-zoster virus). When you are infected with chickenpox—which almost everyone born before 1980 has been—the virus stays dormant in your body and can reactivate later in life to cause shingles.

Even if you have gotten the Zostavax vaccine in the past, you should still get the Shingrix vaccine.

MMR Vaccine

It's recommended that those ages 19 to 64 years of age who were born in 1957 or later with no evidence of immunity to measles, mumps, or rubella, receive one to two doses of the MMR vaccine.

Measles used to be common in the United States until the measles vaccine became widely available. Through mass vaccination campaigns, measles outbreaks became increasingly rare, and the disease was officially declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000.

With that said, the spread of anti-vaccination ("anti-vaxxing") messages has led to a decline in the use of the MMR (measles, mump, and rubella) vaccine. As a result, measles made a big comeback.

Older adults are more likely to experience serious complications if they do get measles. According to the CDC, one in five unvaccinated people born in 1957 or later will be hospitalized if they get measles, particularly those with weakened immune systems.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Vaccination is advised for all people 6 months and over. Although younger children are far less likely to develop severe symptoms if infected, that shouldn't suggest that they are inherently "safe" from COVID-19. While many will have mild or no symptoms, some babies and younger children do end up in the hospital. This is especially true for children with asthma, diabetes, and congenital heart disease, among other pre-existing conditions.