I got my booster in August of this year. What’s the deal going forward, what with Omicron starting to spread? Should I get another shot six months after my booster, or should I go sooner than that?
Unless your immune system is especially weak, I think you’ll be fine waiting the six month period. If the pharma companies come out with an Omicron-specific booster by the end of your six months, then get that one, otherwise just stick with the normal boosters.
I’ve heard that getting the booster too soon will prevent your body from maximizing its antibody levels, but I don’t know how robust the data is behind that conjecture. Nevertheless, if you were planning on attending a large indoor gathering between 4 to 6 months after your booster, it doesn’t hurt to be cautious and get another one ahead of schedule.
If you have the option now, do it now. If omicron projections hold true it’ll be dominant in a short period and if you had two vaccines with a short spacing you won’t be particularly well protected against getting it (though probably well protected against severe illness and death).
Ideally six months is preferred but waiting for that will mean you’ll almost certainly be exposed to omicron in the meantime, so why not take the extra prtotection now?
They got a booster in August. The question was about an additional booster. No one has recommended one yet. We will have to wait to see what happens woth the first wave of boosted people.
So what is the current recommendation for getting the booster after infection? I have seen contradictory information online. I know they said 90 days in the past but I think the recommendation changed.
I just got over my breakthrough most likely omicron case. I was scheduled to get my booster on Dec 11. I tested positive on Dec 9.
I’d ask your doctor. Personally, I’d wait at least 90 days, except one of my employers is requiring a booster by Jan 14, so I’d actually run it by them.
I am fully vaccinated and my doctor had me tested for Covid antibodies. Due to the absence of those antibodies she recommended that I get the booster shot. BTW I am 66 y/o and NOT immuno-compomised.
I had a breakthrough infection in late November, after the six-months-out period but before getting boosted, and my doctor as well as the Health Department consultant who lifted my isolation in early December said there was no reason not to get the booster right away.
I waited another week for the jab, so that made it nearly three weeks between the onset of symptoms for the “airborne booster” and obtaining the actual booster.
I didn’t notice any apparent effects from that timing in my reaction to the booster or in my continuing recovery from the infection. But IANAD or an epidemiologist and I just took the professional advice I was given.
However, I’m still supposed to avoid PCR testing for 90 days from the onset of symptoms, because apparently I’m still likely to have enough crud in the system to trigger a positive result.
You’re supposed to wait 90 days from getting the monoclonal antibody treatment. Because you didn’t get the full treatment, I think you should ask your doctor whether it applies to you or not. The treatment interferes with developing immunity from the vaccine.
Signing up for a booster has been a madhouse around here since they opened it up to pretty much everyone. I’ve got a booking for Jan 11 and it’s out of town – only about a 20-minute drive, but still, out of town. I keep checking for a local booking, but no luck so far. I did have an opportunity the other day to sign up for a next-day appointment (same out-of-town deal, though) and maybe I should have, but it wasn’t convenient. So Jan 11 it still is.
If the reaction to the shot is supposed to be similar to the second dose, that’s good, because my reaction to the second dose was zero – nothing, nada. First dose reaction was mild – slightly sore arm, sleepy the next day, but not much else. Both were Pfizer. Booster will be either Pfizer or Moderna.
Anecdata time!
My booster response was milder then my second shot (none vs. some arm tenderness).
Oldest son was much worse - no problems with the second shot, sick and in bed for about 36 hours on the booster.
Good catch, I completely failed to connect this with Loach’s earlier account of getting the treatment, sorry.
If you didn’t get monoclonal antibodies or certain other forms of specialized COVID treatment, AFAIK there is no recommendation to delay getting the booster after breakthrough infection.
The infection acts as a booster though. It’s just hard to say for how long. If your goal is to extend protection, you can probably wait a bit to get it. If your goal is to stay on schedule with definitive timelines, you can get it as soon as you’ve recovered, basically.
For, I assume, public policy reasons, the US seems to not acknowledge any protective effect from having recovered from covid, or any reason to delay vaccination. In practice, though, we were advised to at least wait 30 days to get our kids vaccinated, to reduce the chances of worse side effects.
Pre-omicron, having been vaccinated plus having recovered from covid provided the best immunity.
The local movers and shakers (very nice people who try their best to do good things for our very small community) are trying to get a booster clinic set up at the community center for a day. They were able to get one set up for the first shot but had such a poor response that the shot folks didn’t want to waste a day sitting around in a stuffy building out in the middle of nowhere so didn’t come back for the second shot.
I suggested they do a sign up so they could show the shot givers that there was a demand and was told that they knew that nobody would sign up, but were hoping for a couple of people to drive by and think that maybe they should get a booster.
A friend works at a Safeway pharmacy and tells me that they don’t do walk in boosters because they don’t get enough demand to use a bottle without wasting most of it. It’s appointment only not due to demand but to save resources.
Omicron is like a whole new virus any antibodies that you have because you previously had covid are probably ineffective against variants.
Your t-cell response is probably still good, though.
Cite?
No, having previously had covid plus being vaccinated is more protective against variants than either of those alone. (Shown in studies from Israel.)
And the data on omicron at least suggests that having previously recovered from covid is protective against hospitalization.
And it makes sense for people who’ve had covid to be protected against variants, because they have been exposed to the whole virus, not just the spike. So there is more for the immune system to recognize. I added the “pre-omicron” caveat because, of course, it’s possible that it doesn’t still work that way, but I doubt it.
No, it’s not that bad. The antibodies from the vaccines are significantly less effective against omicron, but not completely ineffective. That’s why boosting your antibody levels back up to where they were after the second shot is considered to be protective against omicron. The antibodies may be less effective, but you have more of them, and that results in significant protection, especially from severe disease.
You also get immunity from getting the virus itself, and the antibodies here are not quite the same as the ones from the vaccines. In fact, the most protective immunity from omicron is from having had the vaccines and having had COVID-19. But, of course, we don’t want people to have to get sick, let alone risk death, to increase their immunity.
When Biden et al said we’re not back to where we were in March 2020, this is what they were talking about.
Not only that, there is a whole other mechanism involving T-cells which is also likely to provide a decent degree of protection against a omicron and potentially other variants.
Antibody levels are not the be-all and end-all but the boosters will certainly enahance the abillity to avoid infection whereas the t-cell response is mobilised post-infection to help fight it off and minimise the possibility of severe disease.