Key TakeawaysYou do not need another COVID-19 vaccine if you’ve already gotten a bivalent booster.FDA officials are deciding whether they will authorize a second bivalent COVID booster dose for high-risk people.Experts say that the bivalent boosters are still effective and there is no pressing need to create another reformulated booster.

Key Takeaways

You do not need another COVID-19 vaccine if you’ve already gotten a bivalent booster.FDA officials are deciding whether they will authorize a second bivalent COVID booster dose for high-risk people.Experts say that the bivalent boosters are still effective and there is no pressing need to create another reformulated booster.

More than six months have passed sinceupdated COVID-19 vaccineswith Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 spike proteins rolled out. Many people are wondering whether it’s nearly time to get another booster, or whether they’ll need to start getting yearly COVID boosters as with annual flu shots.

Here’s what experts want you to know about spring COVID boosters.

Do Bivalent Boosters Protect Against XBB.1.5?

Why You Can’t Get Another Bivalent Booster Yet

For the time being, if you’ve gotten a bivalent booster, you’re considered to be up-to-date with your vaccines.

“There is no additional need for a booster vaccine if one has already received the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine,”Gonzalo Bearman, MD, chief of infectious diseases for Virginia Commonwealth University Health, told Verywell.

According toDavid Dowdy, MD, a professor in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s department of epidemiology, the challenge with a broad recommendation for a second bivalent booster shot is the lack of data.

While there is strong evidence that the current vaccine series is effective against serious COVID illness, Dowdy said that “it’s not entirely clear how helpful another dose of theOmicron-tailored shot would be for high-risk individuals.”

A Novavax Booster Is Here. But Who Will Get It?

Health officials are monitoring new and changing data on COVID vaccination to help them make recommendations, which are only based on the current situation—they’re not yet at a point where they want people to think about additional boosters as being part of a yearly routine like, say, flu shots are.

What Does the WHO Recommend?

The WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) recently recommended an additional booster 6 or 12 months after the last dose for high-priority groups, which includes older adults, frontline healthcare workers, people with comorbid or immunocompromising health conditions, and pregnant people.

Do the Bivalent Boosters Still Work?

Recommending another booster dose would not mean that the bivalent boosters are not capable of protecting against COVID-19. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that countries use the bivalent vaccines for primary vaccination, not just for boosters.

The bivalent booster is still effective against the circulatingvariants of COVID, but a person’s immunity can wane over time. That’s why a seasonal or annual booster vaccination might end up being necessary at some point in the future. In fact, the Biden Administration reportedly has plans to roll outanother reformulated COVID booster later this year.

“I do not see a compelling need to generate new formulations, especially with the burden of COVID-19 declining,” Dowdy said. “But that doesn’t mean there won’t be a role for those additional formulations in the future.”

Will We Need Annual COVID Vaccines?

“Make sure that you don’t become a source of infection,” Dowdy said. “If you are having symptoms of COVID-19—or other respiratory illnesses—make sure that you are wearing a mask, and [stay] home when possible.”

What This Means For YouIf you’ve already gotten a bivalent COVID booster, you might not need an additional booster this spring. An additional dose might be recommended for high-risk people if the FDA signs off.

What This Means For You

If you’ve already gotten a bivalent COVID booster, you might not need an additional booster this spring. An additional dose might be recommended for high-risk people if the FDA signs off.

The information in this article is current as of the date listed, which means newer information may be available when you read this. For the most recent updates on COVID-19, visit ourcoronavirus news page.

1 SourceVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.World Health Organization.SAGE updates COVID-19 vaccination guidance.

1 Source

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.World Health Organization.SAGE updates COVID-19 vaccination guidance.

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

World Health Organization.SAGE updates COVID-19 vaccination guidance.

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