Sign Up To Get Your COVID Booster!
A lil PSA from the folks (me) at Make It Make Sense.
I just wanted to drop a quick note to my baddies to let you know that the new bivalent COVID vaccines are available. Vox has a fantastic explainer on this; you should read it all. But I do want to pull out what I think is the most critical question:
How long after my last vaccine (or a recent Covid-19 infection) should I get a new booster shot?
Covid-19 infection and vaccination both provide some level of protection against future infections, which can last for a few months. During those months, your memory B cells — your immune system’s antibody factories — don’t respond as robustly to Covid-19 booster shots, perhaps because they’re busy fine-tuning the quality of the antibodies they’re producing in response to the original infection or vaccine.
Whatever the reason, this means that if you were recently infected with or vaccinated for Covid-19, you should take a beat before getting your bivalent booster shot.
How many months? Regardless of whether you were recently boosted or recently got Covid, the guidance is similar. The data supporting this guidance is pretty scant, though, so while we’ve summarized it below, it’s worth knowing there’s no perfect time interval.
If you’ve recently had Covid-19, you’ll probably want to wait at least three months to get a booster shot (even though you technically can get a booster shot as soon as your symptoms are gone). A recent preprint (i.e., non-peer-reviewed) study suggested that receiving a booster within two months of infection doesn’t really add much protection, and CDC guidance suggests waiting even longer to get vaccinated — three months after symptom onset — to improve the immune system’s response to the booster shot.
“A Covid infection in a vaccinated person — essentially that functions as a booster,” said Andrew Pekosz, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University, in a late-July interview.
If you’ve recently been boosted, the CDC offers a tool to help people determine when they are eligible for a booster. The timeline of your eligibility can change slightly based on age and individual risk factors, with people at higher risk being prioritized. But note: The CDC’s tool doesn’t include a question about recent infection. You can think of a recent infection as basically equivalent to a vaccine for the purposes of using the tool, or you can talk to your health care provider if you’re not sure what to do.
Generally, epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina suggested in a recent issue of her newsletter, healthy people should wait four to six months after an infection or vaccination to get a booster — a bit longer than the CDC’s recommendations. She also suggests shortening that wait to three to four months for people at high risk for severe infection or who plan to attend an event where the infection risk is high (like a wedding), and stresses that, broadly speaking, there’s some uncertainty about the ideal interval between doses.
Bottom line: Although there are no firm rules about how soon to get a bivalent booster after infection or vaccination, you’re likely to get the most bang for your vaccine buck if you give it at least three months.
Take care, stay safe, and have a great weekend y’all!