August is National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM), which emphasizes the importance of routine immunization for people of all ages. This year, NIAM also highlights additional trends to watch for, including the implications of the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the expansion of full vaccine coverage without cost sharing for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and the FDA approval of new vaccines.

This white paper from CapView Strategies outlines the current vaccine coverage landscape in the US and offers tangible solutions for addressing adult immunization gaps. The paper reviews coverage of recommended vaccines in the U.S. since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, including expansions in vaccine coverage for adults in Medicare and Medicaid.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on decreasing routine immunization rates both for children and adults — but it also provided lessons learned on how to address equity issues and system barriers that can be leveraged moving forward to improve rates. This is especially important to protect against respiratory diseases as we saw this year with the “tripledemic.”