Booster Shots: When will you get a booster (3rd) shot of the vaccine?

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. IOW, it doesn’t matter who’s in front of the camera. The controlling money isn’t near a camera. :wink:

It’s funny I was considering an annual booster. Now with politics again infiltrating science (the other way this time) I’m going to wait till they figure out flu+C19 combos. One and done.

In light of the results, I’m told family members who initially got the pfizer regiment to get their booster asap.

I personally got Moderna, and am breathing easier, but probably will get a booster sometime between the 7-12 months after the initial course.

No one I know got JnJ, but if it were me, I’d be heading to CVS for a Pfizer booster right now.

PFE results on effectiveness declining 4-6mo after last vaccine from almost 90% to 50-60% protection against symptomatic covid. Protection against hospitalization remained high even over time (90-95%).

Between Dec 14, 2020, and Aug 8, 2021, of 4,920,549 individuals assessed for eligibility, we included 3,436,957 (median age 45 years [IQR 29-61]; 1,799,395 [52·4%] female and 1,637,394 [47·6%] male). For fully vaccinated individuals, effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infections was 73% (95% CI 72-74) and against COVID-19-related hospital admissions was 90% (89-92). Effectiveness against infections declined from 88% (95% CI 86-89) during the first month after full vaccination to 47% (43-51) after 5 months. Among sequenced infections, vaccine effectiveness against infections of the delta variant was high during the first month after full vaccination (93% [95% CI 85-97]) but declined to 53% [39-65] after 4 months. Effectiveness against other (non-delta) variants the first month after full vaccination was also high at 97% (95% CI 95-99), but waned to 67% (45-80) at 4-5 months. Vaccine effectiveness against hospital admissions for infections with the delta variant for all ages was high overall (93% [95% CI 84-96]) up to 6 months.

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Isnt this what ‘the science’ has long known as a pretty basic fact? The body never continuously produces antibodies for an infection, it produces them in response to an infection. And once the infection is gone, it stops until the next infection. There’s nothing novel about it happening now.

What this data tells me is that the fear of potential exposure is being given far more weight than the actual risk of being exposed. Declining antibodies is a pretty clear indication that people going about their daily lives are in fact not being exposed to the virus. Because if they were exposed, their body would quickly resume producing the antibodies.

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Yes, of course you expect antibodies to go away after 3 months if there’s no re-exposure, but

  1. The two shot vaccine was supposed to make them last longer, or at least instill longer term immune memory (which may have indeed happened), and

  2. These aren’t antibodies declining, it’s efficacy against symptomatic infection

So you might think that your body would make the antibodies on demand when exposed and you wouldn’t get sick. But I guess covid, or at least delta, comes on fast enough that you still get somewhat sick before that happens, and you can transmit it to those around you if that happens. Of course some people don’t get symptoms anyway, vaccine or no, so it does depend a bit on your personal immune response.

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Any news about a booster shot for those folks that received the Moderna vaccination earlier. I actually think we have the longest time span for a wait between the first two shots and a booster.

Hopefully, because I haven’t heard anything about the need of a booster.

No news is good news! :slight_smile:

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I hope you wouldn’t think that. Clearly, you need to first get sick before your body knows to resume producing the antibodies. You need to get sick before existing antibodies have anything to fight. And even being the right antibodies, they still need a little time to “win”. The timeframe is just shrunk, since your body doesn’t have to first figure out the right response.

We’re not disagreeing, it’s just semantics. By “sick” I meant feeling badly; clearly you get infected and then your body’s immune system takes a little while to notice and then a little longer than that to respond. Of course your T cells and some other non-antibody defenses can happen as soon as they notice the recognized threat has shown up again, and the antibodies can start being produced. If the infection is slowed or stopped quickly enough in its exponential growth phase, it may not have gotten widespread enough that your feel unwell and that’s a good thing both for you and probably for your risks of spreading it (less sneezing or whatever, and lower viral load sooner).

Or… the actual efficacy is going down to 0%, but two thirds of the people were exposed during the trial period, so the average comes out to 67%. :wink:

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I’m wondering if its better to get a booster that’s different from the first vaccination. That is, I got 2 shots of Pfizer and maybe its better to get a Moderna or Johnson booster when available. My thinking is that each vaccine targets the virus differently so that getting two different vaccines may give broader protection. i’ve seen some news that a mix n’ match approach will be considered in mid-November in the U.S.

The United Kingdom has been looking into Astra Zeneca plus, i think Pfizer. San Francisco has offered Johnson recipients a shot of Pfizer or Moderna in their county hospital, even before FDA/CDC go ahead.

Neither “targets the virus”. All the vaccines attempt to trick your body into producing the same antibodies that are produced in response to a live infection.

I probably used the word target incorrectly. What I meant is that the vaccines work differently; from the CDC:

  • mRNA vaccines contain material from the virus that causes COVID-19 that gives our cells instructions for how to make a harmless protein that is unique to the virus. After our cells make copies of the protein, they destroy the genetic material from the vaccine. Our bodies recognize that the protein should not be there and build T-lymphocytes and B-lymphocytes that will remember how to fight the virus that causes COVID-19 if we are infected in the future.
  • Protein subunit vaccines include harmless pieces (proteins) of the virus that causes COVID-19 instead of the entire germ. Once vaccinated, our bodies recognize that the protein should not be there and build T-lymphocytes and antibodies that will remember how to fight the virus that causes COVID-19 if we are infected in the future.
  • Vector vaccines contain a modified version of a different virus than the one that causes COVID-19. Inside the shell of the modified virus, there is material from the virus that causes COVID-19. This is called a “viral vector.” Once the viral vector is inside our cells, the genetic material gives cells instructions to make a protein that is unique to the virus that causes COVID-19. Using these instructions, our cells make copies of the protein. This prompts our bodies to build T-lymphocytes and B-lymphocytes that will remember how to fight that virus if we are infected in the future.

Pfizer and Moderna use the mRNA approach and Johnson and AstraZeneca the vector approach.

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FDA thinking about allowing PFE boosters for ages 40+. JNJ recommended for a second shot.

MRNA recommended for emergency booster use as well, same as PFE I think, with FDA approval likely shortly.

They’re all already allowed 18+ now, for almost everyone.
Living or working at schools, or in public facing jobs (like food workers), or in manufacturing or…(the “examples of workers” is not an all inclusive list, just examples)

Most people are covered under the “may” for living/working, and there’s also elevated risk health categories (which includes 25+ BMI)

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I’m probably eligible for the mRNA booster shot soon. But, I think I’ll give it a little more time…

Changes happening daily, yes today, but wait until next weekend for new information.

Listen for science reports. :rofl:

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“Yet”

https://www.axios.com/cdc-fully-covid-vaccinated-definition-update-5c2312d9-64f4-4bb7-a289-04c00889a573.html

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never saw that coming [sarcasm]

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They won’t be happy until all freedom is stamped out. Horrible.

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