![]() GODOY: And, you know, people who are young and otherwise healthy, they're not considered to be at high risk of severe disease. PEKOSZ: If you've been infected less than six months ago, you probably don't need the vaccine right now because you've got some strong immunity from that infection. But, you know, many of the people Maria and I spoke to, like Pekosz, say it's OK to wait longer if you're at low risk, and maybe it actually could be a good idea to wait maybe four to six months to get the best bang for the buck from the new shots. The CDC says people who've had a recent infection may wait three months to get a booster. STEIN: Now, one thing to consider is how recently you got the last booster, or COVID, for that matter. JOHN MOORE: If you are in poor health and have an acknowledged pre-existing condition that puts you at risk of severe COVID, then you are a priority group. You know, that's people age 65 and older or if you're immunocompromised or. But experts like John Moore - he's an immunologist from Weill Cornell Medical College - they agree that the booster is most critical for people at higher risk of severe disease from COVID. That's the recommendation the CDC endorsed this week. GODOY: Well, the short answer is anyone 6 months and up. So then, Maria, what's the guidance for who should get this vaccine? And Deepta Bhattacharya, a professor of immunology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, says.ĭEEPTA BHATTACHARYA: You know, there's every reason to expect that people will make decent antibodies against the variants that we know about right now.īARBER: OK. And the new COVID boosters should still provide protection. But a spate of recent lab studies suggest it is no better at evading immunity than other circulating variants. When it first emerged, BA.2.86 set off alarms because it had so many mutations. STEIN: And that's exactly what laboratory studies have found, that the new shots generate neutralizing antibodies that look like they would do a good job of helping fight off the variants that are circulating now.īARBER: And are these new boosters protective against the latest subvariant that experts are watching really closely - that's BA.2.86? So when I talked to Andrew Pekosz - he's a virologist and immunologist at Johns Hopkins - he said, you know, the updated shots should be pretty protective.ĪNDREW PEKOSZ: So when you get vaccinated, the vast majority of the antibodies your body generate should cross-react to the variants that are circulating right now. So these new shots should be a much closer match to currently circulating variants than the earlier vaccines. ROB STEIN, BYLINE: You know, the new boosters are targeted at a much more recent version of omicron than the previous shots. How good is this new booster in protecting against the current field of variants? And since this booster was developed, new omicron subvariants have emerged. ![]() REGINA BARBER, BYLINE: OK, Rob, we know coronaviruses mutate a lot. ![]() So should you get one? If so, when should you get it? And will you have to pay? Regina Barber from NPR's Short Wave podcast sat down with NPR health correspondents Rob Stein and Maria Godoy to answer those questions and more about the updated vaccines. In better news, new COVID boosters have started to arrive at pharmacies this week. If it feels like a lot of people you know are getting COVID these days, you are not alone.
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