Should you get a COVID booster shot as soon as you are eligible?
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are expected to open COVID-19 booster shot eligibility this week to all adults who got their Pfizer and Moderna second doses at least six months earlier. (Everyone vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson's vaccine should get a booster after two months, the CDC advises.) Several states and large cities have already cleared all adults to get booster shots.
If you are under 65, relatively healthy, and don't have other risk factors that have made you eligible to get a booster shot since September, should you schedule your third dose as soon as the FDA and CDC give you the green light?
The short consensus answer is yes, you should get a booster shot as soon as you are eligible.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
If you are fully vaccinated, "the shot will, well, give you a boost," Caroline Mimbs Nyce writes at The Atlantic. "You're likely already well protected from severe disease, hospitalization, and death thanks to your first course," but "the early science suggests that extra doses help your body produce additional antibodies, perhaps lowering your risk of infection."
The Biden administration and CDC, especially, "still cling to this idea that the first and only goal should be to prevent hospitalizations," Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told Politico's Renuka Rayasam on Wednesday. It's better to avoid getting COVID at all, especially since the sparse evidence suggests breakthrough cases can lead to long COVID, he adds, and "who wants to get that?"
"There is some preliminary evidence that the levels of antibodies after a booster are higher than after a second dose of an mRNA vaccine," Sumathi Reddy writes at The Wall Street Journal. "But higher antibody levels would still wane over time." Timing-wise, you can wait until two to three weeks before a big event, like Christmas or a wedding, to get the third shot, she adds, but "predicting the course of the virus is tough. A more contagious variant could surface and lead to more risk while you're waiting."
Spacing vaccine doses six months apart is the norm, Hotez said, and three doses is the magic number for common childhood vaccines. "I am of the opinion that we won't need another booster next year," or for several years, he told Politico. "But at this point, that is still just an opinion."
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Can Trump get a fair trial?
Talking Points Donald Trump says he can't get a fair trial in heavily Democratic Manhattan as his hush money case starts
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Crossword: April 24, 2024
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
Sudoku hard: April 24, 2024
The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
By The Week Staff Published
-
Texas dairy worker gets bird flu from infected cow
Speed Read The virus has been spreading among cattle in Texas, Kansas, Michigan and New Mexico
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Dengue hits the Americas hard and early
Speed Read Puerto Rico has declared an epidemic as dengue cases surge
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
US bans final type of asbestos
Speed Read Exposure to asbestos causes about 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Seattle Children's Hospital sues Texas over 'sham' demand for transgender medical records
Speed Read Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton subpoenaed records of any Texan who received gender-affirming care at the Washington hospital
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Afghanistan has a growing female suicide problem
Speed Read The Taliban has steadily whittled away women's and girls' rights in Afghanistan over the past 2 years, prompting a surge in depression and suicide
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
US life expectancy rose in 2022 but not to pre-pandemic levels
Speed Read Life expectancy is slowly crawling back up
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Vallance diaries: Boris Johnson 'bamboozled' by Covid science
Speed Read Then PM struggled to get his head around key terms and stats, chief scientific advisor claims
By The Week UK Published
-
An increasing number of dog owners are 'vaccine hesitant' about rabies
Speed Read A new survey points to canine vaccine hesitancy
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published