Covid-19 Booster Shots information

Follow Pooja in this informational article as she discusses the recent information on the booster shots, including the requirements, effects, and how to find a shot near you.

booster shots eligibility information

A few months ago, the CDC approved the COVID-19 booster shots. If you have gotten the vaccine in the past 6-8 months, it is highly recommended that you also get the booster shot to increase immunity. The few requirements to be eligible for the booster shot are that the person has to be age 18 or older, including those who have received the Moderna, Johnson and Johnson/Jansen COVID-19 vaccines. If you have any family members or know anyone who is 65 years or older, they are especially eligible for the shot. If you are 18+ and live in long-term care settings, have underlying medical conditions, work or live in high-risk settings, and completed Pfizer's initial series at least 6 months ago, then you are eligible to get the booster shot.

data supporting the need for a booster shot

According to CDC, studies show that, after getting vaccinated, “protection against the virus may decrease” over time and be less able to protect against the Delta variant. Recent data collected from a small clinical trial shows that a Pfizer-BioNTech “booster shot increases the immune response” (CDC) in trial participants who finished their primary series 6 months earlier. A booster dose is given to someone whose immune system has built excellent immunity after recieving the inital vaccine, but then that protection decreased naturally over time (this is called waning immunity). Immune protection tends to weaken over time, and a booster dose can help train the immune system to conitue recognizing the virus to protect the body against . For example, every 10 years, an addirtional dose of the tetanus and diphtheria vaccine is recommended. Fully vaccinated people have begun to experience reduced protection against mild and moderate infection from COVID-19 and its variants including Delta. For this reason, people who are eligible are highly reccomended to get a COVID-19 booster dose to enhance their protection.

find a covid-19 vaccine

To find a COVID-19 vaccine: search vaccines.gov, text your ZIP code to 438829, or call 1-800-232-0233 to find locations near you.

Check your local pharmacy website to see if walk-ins or appointments are available for vaccination.

At your first vaccination appointment, you should have received a CDC COVID-19 vaccination record card. You will need to bring this card to the booster shot vaccination.

what are the possible side effects?

After getting the COVID-19 vaccine, you may experience side effects like fatigue or muscle pain, but these are also normal signs that your body is building protection and fighting. Other common side effects includee pain surrounding the injection site, headache, fever, swelling, joint pain, chills, redness, and nausea. Dr. Mohammad Sobhanie, an infectuious disease physican at OSU Wexner, says, "Those effects could be the same as when you got it the firsty time around, could be nothing, or could be a little bit wose that what it was before."

what if i do not get a booster shot?

Even if you decide not to get a booster shot, you are still considered fully vaccinated two weeks after the second dose in a 2-shot series, like the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine, like J&J. However, it is recommended to get a booster because the first two doses give your body a blueprint to fight the virus that causes COVID, while he booster is designed to trigger that plan into action, causing your body to start producing more antibodies.

what is a booster shot?

A booster shot is recommended due to concern that the effectiveness of the vaccine decreases over time and may not protect against a new strain, such as the Delta variant. Pfizer and J&J's boosters have the same dosages as their orignal vaccine regimens: 30 micrograms and 0.5 mililiters. Moderna's booster is 50 micrograms per shot, which is half the dosage of its oringial 100-micrgogram vaccines. According to "Make It", Moderna told the FDA's vaccine advisory panel that it lowered its boostrer dosage to lessen the severity of its effects and increase its vaccine availability worldwide."

can i mix and match vaccines in a booster?

The FDA and CDC recently supported a “mix-and-match” approach that allows people to choose a different vaccine for their booster than the one they started with. According to NIH research, Pfizer and Moderna boosters induce higher levels of antibodies in J&J recipients that recieve second J&J shots, so you could be better off switching to an mRNA vaccine. J&J's data on booster side effects is currently limited, the agency noted, which is why many are pushing for the mRNA vaccines.

Covid-19 Booster Shots information