- Booster shots are available for various at-risk groups, including older adults, individuals who are immunocompromised, people with underlying health conditions, and people whose jobs increase their chances of being exposed to the coronavirus.
- The vaccines remain highly effective at preventing severe illness along with hospitalization and death.
- Booster shots are routinely given to provide longer-lasting protection against many other infectious diseases.
People who have received the Johnson & Johnson shot or both doses of the Pfizer and Moderna shots are still considered fully vaccinated in the United States, even with the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recent authorization of booster doses for select groups.
Booster shots are available for various at-risk groups, including older adults, immunocompromised individuals, those with underlying health conditions, and people whose jobs increase their chances of being exposed to the coronavirus.
The vaccines remain highly effective at preventing severe illness along with hospitalization and death.
Health officials evaluating the durability of the vaccines suspect that though protection against severe illness remains strong, protection against infection and mild illness may wane over time.
Booster shots are routinely given to provide longer-lasting protection against many other infectious diseases.
Because the coronavirus mutates, some infectious diseases specialists suspect annual boosters targeting circulating variants may eventually be recommended.
“To date, to be considered fully vaccinated requires two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines or alternatively one dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine. At this time, the booster shots are not required for individuals to be classified fully vaccinated,” says Phil Felgner, PhD, the director of the Vaccine Research and Development Center at the University of California in Irvine.
Source: healthline