On Sept. 9, 2020, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) reviewed and agreed with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) recommendations for the 2020-2021 influenza season, which – among other things – call for all patients ages 6 months and older who have no contraindications to be appropriately immunized.

The CDC’s Aug. 21 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report summarizes the recommendations and enumerates the many vaccine products on the market this season. They include several inactivated influenza vaccines, a recombinant influenza vaccine and a live attenuated influenza vaccine. With one exception, these products will be quadrivalent; MF59-adjuvanted IIV is expected to be available in both quadrivalent and trivalent formulations.

The report also provides guidance on administering the influenza vaccine to individuals with COVID-19. Family physicians are invited to review the report and additional information on seasonal influenza from the CDC, including an upcoming webinar on testing for and treating influenza during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The MMWR report includes two primary updates.

First, the composition of the 2020-2021 U.S. influenza vaccines includes revisions to the influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, influenza A(H3N2) and influenza B/Victoria lineage components, with all egg-based influenza vaccines containing hemagglutinin derived from one set of updated viruses and all cell culture-based inactivated vaccines and the recombinant influenza vaccine containing hemagglutinin derived from a different set. Quadrivalent vaccines will include an additional influenza B virus component from the B/Yamagata lineage, which is unchanged from that included in the quadrivalent vaccines used during the 2019-2020 influenza season.

The second primary update is the licensure of two new influenza vaccines:

• a high-dose, egg-based quadrivalent IIV, Fluzone High-Dose Quadrivalent (which is expected to replace the previously available trivalent formulation of Fluzone High-Dose) and
• a standard-dose, egg-based, adjuvanted quadrivalent IIV, Fluad Quadrivalent.

Both vaccines are licensed for patients 65 and older and are expected to be available in the United States for the 2020-2021 season.