I haven’t had any Covid boosters since early fall 2022, when that bivalent booster was all the rage. I got mine with a separate flu shot. They worked too – I didn’t get Covid or the flu, and I’ve only had a couple of minor stomach bugs in the past year. Considering there’s a rise in Covid cases this summer, I wondered if the CDC would give out new instructions on boosters any time soon. Well, the CDC hasn’t given out official guidance yet, but the NYT had a good piece on why we should wait until October to get our boosters.
An uptick in Covid-19 cases and the fast-approaching new school year have many people wondering when they should get their next booster. The short answer, according to experts: not quite yet — you’ll be a lot better off if you wait another month or two.
In June, an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration recommended that the next Covid vaccine formulation target the Omicron XBB.1.5 variant. Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are now working to update, test and mass-produce their vaccines, which will then need to be officially authorized by the F.D.A. Experts estimate that shots will be available to the public by late September or early October.
There are two main reasons to hold out for the updated vaccine. First, it will be a better match for the variants that are currently circulating. The majority of the coronavirus strains infecting people right now are either descended from, or related to, XBB.1.5, so the decision to target that variant with the vaccine “was about as good as you could imagine for the moment,” said Trevor Bedford, a professor in the vaccine and infectious disease division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
The vaccine will most likely also provide some protection against EG.5, which recently became the dominant variant in the United States, accounting for about 17 percent of current cases. EG.5 is descended from another XBB variant and has a few additional mutations, so antibodies produced by the updated vaccine may not be quite as effective against it. But the new booster is still a better fit for EG.5 than last year’s booster, which targeted both the original Covid strain and the BA.5 Omicron variant — neither of which appear to be circulating anymore.
The second reason to wait a month or two for the new vaccine is that it will increase the odds that your defenses against the virus will be strongest when cases are expected to peak, historically between December and February. Antibodies wane over time, and protection is highest during the first three months following an infection or vaccination.
For the past six or seven years, I’ve been quite good about getting my flu shots every fall, so this kind of guidance makes sense to me. Late September/early October is when the new flu shots come out and now we’re in a cycle where we’ll get the new Covid boosters at the same time. I’m actually looking forward to it! I always feel so smug and healthy after all my shots. Anyway, pencil it in – get your new Covid boosters alongside your flu shots in about six weeks.
Photos courtesy CDC via Unsplash.
We are planning on it! We all got the bivalent booster and flu shot last fall (after getting Covid for the first time last august).
There are at least 2 cases of Covid in my 4th graders grade and he’s home sick this week (it’s not Covid…have tested three different days). I felt sure he had Covid. We got it exactly one year ago! But hopefully we can make it till fall boosters.
I code for all the Urgent Cares under the hospital I work for, so I see all the charts of patients coming in in my city alone. There is A LOT of Covid popping up. Get your boosters!
In the U.K. only people and children who are immunocompromised can get access to the vaccines and boosters. I’ve tried to find out any information I can but there’s nothing.
Does anyone else know anything about the U.K. booster situation?
@LOLA, it’s not very satisfactory but I think it’s likely that the rest of us will have to buy vaccines privately, going forward. Here’s a recent article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/17/covid-vaccines-should-be-available-privately-uk-scientists-say
I plan on getting the new Covid booster when it comes out and will get the flu at same time . I’m immune compromised so I have had five boosters. I’ll take whatever I can get and knock on wood I have never had Covid. I also still wear masks when I’m in stores or crowded places and also airports and airplanes.
@susan, if you have had your second bivalent booster, then you unfortunately need to wait for the FDA to authorize a third booster for immunocompromised people. Hopefully this will be done by the early Fall. I am immunocompromised and tried to schedule an appointment recently to get both the flu shot and my third bivalent booster and was told I couldn’t get the booster until it’s actually authorized. Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait too long!
LOL Kaiser me too! I always get my flu and Covid booster on the same day and I always feel so smug and responsible afterwards. LOL.
I’m right there with y’all! It’s only been in the last few years I even started getting a flu shot, and now I feel so upright & responsible afterwards! Or old, whichever. 😉
BeanieBean, I’m getting these two shots at the same time as you, too. I, too, just started getting the flu shots in the last few years. My doctor insisted, so I guess I’m getting old.
I am so grateful I have not had covid. I’m even more grateful there are vaccines that can minimize the damage covid would do to my already less than healthy lungs.
I still wear a mask in public because I don’t want *any* airborne infections or allergens (got slammed by cedar fever morphing into bronchitis last December and it was baaaad). So I know I’m actively preventing those infections and I’m actively trying to make sure I don’t pass on germs to anyone else.
Related sidenote: I’m a rideshare driver. I STRONGLY recommend everyone wear a mask in their rideshare cars because our cars are rolling petri dishes. The overwhelming number of drivers and riders who don’t mask up but still cough (especially the gross cruddy coughs) and sneeze in those cars is mind numbing. I still follow all covid protocols including daily disinfecting of my car interior because every damn day someone gets in my car and coughs *without covering their damn mouth*. It’s like a human slaughtering pandemic never happened.
And if the interior of the rideshare car you are riding in is dirty that driver sure as heck isn’t disinfecting even one inch of it.
Stay safe, fellow bitchies!
💯 this is also a good reminder to everyone to keep washing your hands frequently!
I am one of the very few people on my floor who use the little bottle of softsoap we have in the breakroom of the kitchen (it’s actually better soap than the one we have in bathroom, though I still use that too). As soon as I drop my backpack and purse at my desk, I go straight to wash my hands. I try to touch elevator buttons with my car key, but I have to pull doors open and it grosses me out to even think about it. I requested the soap for the kitchen breakroom, and will continue to do so. Will be relieved once I’m able to get my new booster, the last one I got was the bivalent back in Nov of last year. Haven’t had covid since my initial infection in Dec 2020, and I pray to keep it that way. Stay safe everyone
I’ll be in line to get the new booster along with my flu shot. Knock wood (or Kunahura as my grandmother would say in Yiddish 😊) I have not gotten Covid (at least that I’m aware of!).
As far as I’m concerned, it’s our best defense against long Covid as well, so I’ll be there, with my sleeve rolled up and ready!
There’s also a new study that found much higher immune response when you get the Covid shot in the same arm each time. They think it’s because of the proximity of the shot site to the armpit, where there are a lot of lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are where the T cells that the vaccine ‘teaches’ to recognize and kill coronavirus particles hang out. Interesting.
Yeah I wish I’d known this–I’ve gotten four covid shots/boosters, and I alternated arms, thinking that would be better. Oh well.
@abby, same. I will just need to pick an arm and stick with it! @teddy, thanks for pointing this important information out to the posters here.
I was so excited to see that article (yes, super small sample size)- bc my left arm is my pincushion, every time (unless i get a twofer). Massive axillary nodes and high fever after covid vaccines- woo hoo!! Never stopped masking, haven’t had covid to my knowledge, and have been pcr tested many times pre-procedures, not to mention testing at home as needed.
Good to know, although I had my second Moderna in my opposite arm because the allergic reaction I got the first time was still receding. It was an extreme local reaction that hit ten days after the shot. Weird. And yes, I reported the side effect. No problems in the two subsequent boosters, so I used the same arm for those.
I’m a person who gets horrible side effects from the covid vaccines! The flu shot alone gives me about 24-36 hours of aches, feeling blah. I confess: I didn’t get the covid booster last winter and I want to this winter but… side effects. I was told not to take OTC meds before getting the shots but not sure if that’s true.
I would recommend seeking out a Novavax booster instead of Pfizer or Moderna. Novavax uses a “traditional” vaccine technology instead of the RDNA technology. I was in the Novavax trial and had very minimal side effects. They were very slow to approve boosters for trial participants, so I “dropped out” at the point where I knew I had gotten two actual vaccine shots so I could get a booster shot to feel better about traveling in Winter 2021.
I got a Pfizer booster and thought nothing of it–and it put me in bed for two days. I’m still glad I got boosted because when my “Covid card” came up I had a super mild case, but I am definitely going to seek out Novavax for future booster shots. Good luck!
@ tatannelise Thank you so much! I’ll try that because I’ve only had Pfizer.
No problem and good luck!
I’m not sure it really matters which vaccine, I think it’s more that individual human beings’ reactions vary. I had no issues with any of the four Moderna shots, other than that weird allergic reaction with the first one. I still remember all my co-workers were taking time off from work for the fever & chills the shot gave them & here’s me, wondering if it even worked because I felt nothing.
Definitely recommend novavax, haven’t heard of anyone having much of a reaction beyond some fatigue and sore arm. I had it and only had a sore arm as one would expect with a vaccine
Teddy. I read that too and I have always go my shots in my left arm because I use my right arm and didn’t want any pain in the arm I use most. I have never had any pain so it didn’t matter. Will continue to use left arm.
We are getting that booster at my house! We were super proud eager beavers this year cause our flu shots are available in my little town in New Hampshire in early August and the pharmacist told us we were the first flu shot clients (we got our flu shots 2 weeks ago).
As far as I know we have not gotten Covid. It’s quite possible we had it and just never knew. Thank goodness for vaccines.
I just got out of a ten day stay in the hospital for a brutal case of COVID. The house doc that covers the floor says this variety appears to make people nasty sick but doesn’t kill you. I came home on a very fancy heart monitor that sends my doc messages that say my heart rate went down to 29 last night. I am on a very short list for a pacemaker. We don’t know if they are related but I had a physical several months ago and no problems Be careful
Sorry to hear that, Pat Gaddess. There have been plenty of stories recently linking COVID to heart issues. Here’s one from Harvard:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/covid-19s-cardiac-legacy-an-update
I know someone who traveled out of the country and then was very sick 2 days after returning. She wasn’t able to get a Covid test but assumed that’s what she had. She’s vaccinated. She was so sick she couldn’t get out of bed for days. She said she literally couldn’t move her body. It started with a very sore throat, high fever, and a bad cough. She had a blood test done a few months prior to her vacation and all was great. She had another blood test done a few months after her illness and now she has an auto-immune disease. This came out of nowhere. If you google, you can see that Covid infections are causing auto-immune diseases in people, as well as diabetes, heart problems, the list goes on. This is no joke.
@pat, wishing for you a very speedy recovery. 🤗
Yikes, that’s scary! I hope all goes well with your pacemaker.
Thank you for ths helpful info, Kaiser!
You are appreciated!
I got Covid for the first time at the very end of July. Most likely the Eris variant because, like a lot of people right now, I ended up getting a rash. The rash was worse than the symptoms but I hope to never get Covid again. It was rough lol.
I got Covid for the first time a few weeks ago. I’m glad though none of my family caught it from me. The nurse on the phone told me a lot of first timers getting it this round. Covid is not fun. Getting my booster shot once it comes out.