If you are an adult and were vaccinated to prevent COVID19 over 6 months ago, you are now eligible for a booster!

Why should you get one?

Admittedly, I was not personally in a rush to get a booster because I am healthy, 27, and fully vaccinated with a REALLY good vaccine against COVID19. However, we are getting more data showing that a 3rd booster dose provides even better protection, and I am happy I got my booster.

Even though a person with 2 doses of the vaccine is still protected against severe COVID19 (think, really bad infections that cause hospitalization or death), we have seen waning immunity about 6 months after finishing your initial vaccination. Waning immunity means you are more susceptible to getting a breakthrough infection. These are almost always mild cases, but still carry some risk for the infected individual and transmission to the community.

We now know thanks to a very thorough study (randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial) showed that a third dose of Pfizer or Moderna brings the efficacy (how well a vaccine works in the real world) back to 95.6% in all age groups. This study had over >10,000 participants, making it a fantastic source of information.

In another well-run and thorough study of over 700,000 people, there were 220 cases per 100,000 people who were hospitalized after 2 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. To compare, in those who had had 3 doses of Pfizer, there were 14 hospitalizations per 100,000 people. In this study, there were 32 deaths per 100,000 people vaccinated with 2 doses of Pfizer, and 6 deaths per 1000,000 people vaccinated with 3 doses of Pfizer. This shows that the vaccines are EXTREMELY effective with 2 doses – but even better with 3 doses. These are the data that are visualized in the graph attached to this post.

I strongly encourage anyone in the “at risk” category to get a booster dose. This includes people over 60 years old and those who are on immunosuppressing therapies. I think boosters in this case are a must to maximize protection. Additionally, people that are pregnant or who think they could become pregnant – I would absolutely get a booster. The delta wave has absolutely devastated unvaccinated pregnant people, who are more likely to have complications like pre-term birth, ICU admission, needing to be on a ventilator, and dying when infected with COVID19.

For those lucky enough to be in my situation – I’m 27 with no complex health history – you may not necessarily NEED a booster. However, the data shows that it can definitely help you, and it cannot hurt to get a booster – so why not? I got my booster (I was eligible because I work in a hospital) to make sure that I have the best protection possible going into the holiday season where I will be traveling to visit loved ones who are older, have COPD, have heart problems, are currently pregnant, who are on immunosuppressing drugs, and those that are cancer survivors.

Once again, if you have not gotten your first dose yet, PLEASE consider doing so. If you are gathering with others for Christmas – please get vaccinated as soon as possible. If you get vaccinated with Pfizer now (anyone age 5 and up), you will be fully vaccinated by Christmas.

Oh, and get your flu shot while you are getting your COVID19 vaccine!! Just… who needs the flu on top of all of this?

References:

https://www.thelancet.com/.../PIIS0140-6736(21.../fulltext - picture posted is Figure 1 from this study.

https://www.pfizer.com/.../pfizer-and-biontech-announce...

https://www.cdc.gov/.../slides.../02-COVID-Perez-508.pdf

https://jamanetwork.com/.../jamanetwo.../fullarticle/2782978

Originally published on Facebook on 11/19/21