July 5, 2022 – A brand new mixture vaccine for COVID-19 will seemingly be popping out this fall, providing extra safety towards the Omicron variants of COVID-19. Vaccine maker Moderna mentioned in a current information release that the brand new vaccine is anticipated to be a “lead candidate” as a booster shot within the fall. However because the CDC has doubled down on its suggestions for individuals who are eligible to get their second booster, some are questioning the timing and selection of their fourth shot.
Listed here are the solutions to some frequent questions on boosters.
Ought to I get a second booster if I lately examined constructive for COVID-19?
Based on CDC suggestions, it’s best to attend till your signs have ended earlier than getting a second booster shot. The CDC says that some could need to think about ready 3 months after the beginning of COVID-19 signs to obtain a second booster shot, however the one requirement is that you simply not must self-isolate.
Ought to I anticipate any totally different unwanted effects from the second booster?
Hannah Newman, the director of an infection prevention at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York Metropolis, says unwanted effects from a second booster are totally different from individual to individual. “Negative effects are very short-lived and could be handled with supportive treatment,” she says. Based on consultants at Johns Hopkins Medicine, frequent unwanted effects of COVID-19 vaccinations embody fever, physique aches, chills, and swollen lymph nodes. However these signs are an indication that “your immune system is responding to the pictures,” they are saying
Ought to I attempt to time my second booster with the anticipated surge of COVID-19 instances within the fall?
Newman recommends getting the second booster as quickly as you possibly can. “There’s a excessive degree of group transmission proper now, so it’s higher to get it as quickly as you might be eligible to permit time to construct up antibodies.”
Amesh Adalja, MD, an assistant professor on the Bloomberg Faculty of Public Well being at Johns Hopkins College, says it takes “most likely 7 days or so till you attain the height safety for the immune system to have reacted.”
Ought to immunocompromised individuals think about getting a second booster?
The FDA has licensed second booster pictures for anyone over the age of fifty and folks over the age of 12 who’re immunocompromised. Newman says a second booster can supply immunocompromised individuals extra safety from COVID-19. “In the event that they ended up having a breakthrough an infection, it will guarantee their signs can be milder, in principle,” she says.
How does the brand new Novavax vaccine have an effect on COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters?
A panel of advisers to the FDA says the Novavax vaccine for COVID-19 must be granted emergency use authorization, though the company itself has not but agreed. The Novavax pictures are protein-based vaccines, which means that they inject the spike protein of the COVID-19 virus into your physique. Protein-based vaccines have been used for many years. Widespread vaccines like these for hepatitis B and human papillomavirus (HPV) use this technique. These are totally different from the mRNA-based Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, which give your physique the directions to make the spike protein so your immune system can study to acknowledge it sooner or later.
William Schaffner, MD, a professor of preventive drugs at Vanderbilt College Faculty of Medication, says unvaccinated People could also be extra seemingly get the Novavax shot if they’re skeptical of mRNA vaccines, saying “Novavax is made out of extra conventional strategies, so we might be able to add extra individuals to the vaccinated cohort.”
If I’ve had three doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, can I swap to Moderna for the fourth?
You will get a unique second booster that’s totally different from the first sequence and first booster you obtained. A examine sponsored by the National Institutes of Health discovered that utilizing totally different vaccines as a primary booster was secure and efficient.
Trying Ahead
Quite a bit may very well be driving on whether or not a mix vaccine designed to focus on two coronavirus strains in a single product positive factors FDA authorization and CDC suggestions to be used as an up to date booster.
Within the meantime, Ashish Jha, MD, the White Home COVID-19 Response Group coordinator, reassured reporters throughout a June 23 White Home briefing that there can be sufficient of this mix – often known as a bivalent vaccine – for high-risk People going into fall and winter. However he mentioned that with out new COVID-19 funding from Congress, “we is not going to have sufficient vaccines for each American who desires one.”
