With Covid-19 cases seemingly on the rise again, you may be wondering when to get your next Covid-19 booster. Are you arming yourself now to better protect against a summer surge, or are you waiting, waiting, waiting?To make the next updated edition of the booster available this fall?Well, in most cases, you’d probably prefer to wait until fall, but there are some caveats.
This is the scenario with the following wording of the withdrawal. In June, a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel recommended that the next round of Covid-19 booster shots target the Omicron XBB. 1. 5 subvariant of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. 2 (SARS-CoV-2). ), Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax have started working on this type of vaccines. These will not be absolutely new types of vaccines. Rather, they will use the same mechanisms, structures and vaccines that are already used. In the case of mRNA vaccines, they will come with mRNA that can cause cells to produce Omicron XBB. 1. 5 spike proteins. For the Novavax adjuvanted protein vaccine, it will only come with Omicron XBB. 1. 5 Spike protein. These XBB. 1. 5 boosters will likely be available in late September and early October. But surprise, surprise, there is no express date. So don’t expect the timeline to work like an atomic clock. Things could end up delayed by a few weeks. It’s usually only a few months away, as long as you view vaccination as the premiere of the movie “Barbenheimer” and participate in it some time after it becomes available.
A few months may seem imminent or an eternity depending on who you are and what you do. So, again, how do you know when to give yourself a boost?Well, here are some considerations.
There are essentially three reasons to wait for the next formulation of the booster. One big reason is that this new version should be a better match against the versions of the virus that are circulating now and that should be circulating over the ensuing months. Recall that the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant became the dominant one in the U.S. when 2022 segued into 2023, as I covered for Forbes back then. Granted, the XBB.1.5 is no longer the alpha-dog of variants, having since been overtaken by an alpha-numeric soup of other subvariants, such as EG.5, for example. However, the XBB.1.5 still comprises an estimated 10.3% of all Covid-19 cases in the U.S., according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Covid-19 Data Tracker. And the currently available bivalent boosters were designed to target the original SARS-CoV-2 strain as well as the BA.4/BA.5 Omicron variants that were yesteryears’ news and have essentially gone poof by now.
So, consider the currently available bivalent boosters to be a bit like gaucho pants, hoodie sets, or skinny jeans with chunky sneakers. These bivalent boosters can still work but may not completely match the times. The updated booster with XBB.1.5 will certainly be more up-to-date and thus better match what going on around you. As a result, the XBB.1.5-targetted booster should in theory offer better protection than what you can get now.
The big explanation of the moment rhymes with the craze for laser printers: an expected increase in the winter. Over the past three winters, Covid-19 cases have increased between November and February. This wasn’t much of a surprise because that’s when the weather gets colder and drier and many activities take place indoors, which can simply herald the transmission of the virus. And what do you think will happen between November and February of next year, now that many other people are doing nothing to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2?If your answer is “There is definitely no winter wave,” you may need to call a friend or ask the public.
OK, let’s assume that some kind of Winter surge will occur and protection offered by Covid-19 vaccination begins to wane around four to six months after getting it. Then, getting boosted now might be a case of premature vaccination. Your resulting protection may start waning, oh, around December or so, which guess what could be right in the middle of the Winter surge. By contrast, getting the updated booster in late September or later vaccination could keep you better covered throughout the anticipated Winter surge period.
A third reason to wait until this fall to get a booster is if you just got your last Covid-19 vaccine in 2023. Technically, you can’t even get another booster within four months of the last one. , studies have suggested that getting another booster too soon might not provide as strong protection, as your immune formula could be much like that of a recent school graduate. You need time to fully recover after being exposed to vital data such as the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Only after you’ve had time to reflect on what you notice and life will your immune formula be able to react even more strongly to subsequent exposures to the spike protein. This way, boosters aren’t like avocado toast. You shouldn’t necessarily receive them as soon as you see them. Instead, make sure you place them properly.
That said, fitness tips can be like a pair of very low-waisted jeans. This is rarely a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, you want your physical situation private. Not everyone deserves to wait until the next edition of the Covid-19 vaccine is available. There are several reasons why the importance of having greater coverage over the next few months could be greater than waiting a few months to get even more coverage.
One explanation for why is that he was never fully vaccinated in the first place. This may leave you relatively unprotected against Covid-19 in the current summer situation. Just because you’ve controlled to avoid Covid-19 so far, even if not being fully vaccinated doesn’t mean you have some kind of special sauce on your body that protects you from Covid-19. So far, you may have been very lucky, which can run out at any time. It would be better to get vaccinated now to get at least some point of coverage rather than having virtually no coverage.
A second explanation is that you are at particularly high risk of contracting a severe form of Covid-19 and have not received a Covid-19 vaccine for more than six months. This would be the case if your immune formula was particularly weakened due to a combination of diseases, medications, or complex age. Your doctor can help you make this decision in the best way, as it would involve weighing many other factors. Of course, you can consult to be careful to avoid exposure to SARS-CoV-2 for the next few months. But it’s getting harder and harder with so many other people around you who think “Covid is over” and act that way.
A third explanation is that you are at very high risk of contracting Covid-19 in the next two months and have not received the Covid-19 vaccine for more than six months. This might be the case if you have strong interactions. with other people who might be carrying the virus, such as while running in a gym. Again, it’s best to make this decision with your doctor, as there are many individual and external risk points that need to be together.
The bottom line is that most people will probably want to wait until the updated XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant version of the vaccine becomes available. In the meantime, you can do other things to protect yourself against what may be yet another Summer surge. You can wear a good quality face mask such as an N95 respirator while indoors in public. You can keep your workplace and other gathering locations well-ventilated by opening windows and running air purifiers. You can stay away from poorly-ventilated, crowded locations such as Happy Hours at bars and dungeons. This may not be the only reason to steer clear of Happy Hours in dungeons. In general, it’s a good idea to avoid any settings and circumstances that are at higher risk for transmission such as playing Twister with people who think that the Covid-19 pandemic is a hoax. You can also regularly test yourself and those around you whenever you suspect that you might have been exposed to the SARS-CoV-2, although keep in mind that testing is not super-accurate and can often miss infections. Oh, and, by the way, ask people around you for permission before you test them. Don’t just stick cotton swabs in their nostrils without any warning. If someone tests positive for Covid-19, make sure that they stay isolated until they are no longer infectious.
These would be good precautions to maintain regardless of when you get your next Covid-19 booster. As I’ve indicated multiple times before, while Covid-19 vaccination can offer some important protection, it’s not like a full-body concrete condom. They do not offer perfect protection. In fact, far from it. You can still get Covid-19 after getting vaccinated or after getting Covid-19. And while the risks of hospitalization and death are now much, much lower than they were in 2020, they are still significantly higher than the risks associated with other respiratory viruses. Plus, there’s still the substantial risk of getting long Covid.
The current summer recovery is a reminder that while SARS-Cov-2 is arguably increasingly becoming a seasonal virus, the Covid-19 pandemic is technically not over yet. While the activity of seasonal respiratory viruses, such as influenza, tends to decrease so far the same has not happened with SARS-CoV-2, but we are probably getting to that point. The desire to take various precautions against Covid-19 will not last forever. According to the lyrics of this Guns N’ Roses song, “All we want is a little patience. “