So I’m wondering if this is a quandary other people are worried about. With the new omicron variant is it better to get a booster now with the existing vaccines, or wait ~3 months until an updated mRNA vaccine comes out designed to tackle the omicron variant and get that as a booster?
Are people encouraged to do both, or one or the other?
Just based on the news as of this morning, I’d get the booster now. Omicron doesn’t seem to be very bad as yet.
IANAD, YMMV.
Get a booster now. No one knows enough about Omicron yet to say how effective the booster will be, but it will protect you from the current most common strain, and if it turns out we should all get new boosters in a few months, do that too.
Agree with the recommendation to get the booster now. If there is an omnicron-specific booster in the future, advice will be given as to whether it should be given instead or in addition.
Get a booster now. It helps against Delta.
Why would you wait? It’s not like you can’t do both and get the booster now as well as an updated vaccine whenever it’s available. AFAIK, you can’t overvaccinate yourself with the mRNA vaccines.
I am not aware of whether too many boosters are contra indicated. if a person can do both a booster now and a specialized booster later that’s good, but since the FDA seemed kind of cautious with boosters at first I wasn’t aware of whether a four shot regimen was supported
I solved the quandary by the artifice of getting boostified two days before omicron hit the news.
I thought about this, too. I don’t see any reason that, if a new shot is needed for omicron, they wouldn’t let you get it even if you’d had a booster. If the old vaccine was enough, they wouldn’t need the newer ones.
We know for sure that delta is very contagious, present, and circulating. I’d say get the booster you know exists and that will fight the very contagious disease we know is here.
As I understand it, the reason for the FDA’s caution wasn’t concern about “too many boosters” but uncertainty about whether a booster was really needed.
What are your specific concerns about having too many booster shots?
Do both. I got the booster a few weeks ago. If needed, I’ll get the Omicron booster 6 months from now.
I think the OP is being overly optimistic that the Omicron rMNA shot will be both ready and widely available in 3 months. Ready perhaps, widely available I don’t think so.
Optimistic scenario is that Omicron is hella infectous and very mild, then the world will be vaccinated via rMNA and/or the Omicron.
Should’ve made this a poll. I agree with the consensus; get boosted now. If omicron turns out to be enough of a threat that it requires its own unique booster formula, odds are dangerously high you’ll encounter the virus before that special booster is available to you. (Not dangerously high like the risk of getting wet if you go out in the rain; dangerously high like playing Russian roulette. Five outta six ain’t bad unless the sixth one can kill you.) And if you do encounter omicron without having had a booster designed for it, you’ll be better off if you had the booster that’s available now.
I don’t know if global supply is still an issue. I know there are something like 3 billion adults who still haven’t even had the first vaccination, but I don’t know if there is a shortage of global supply which is a factor in that. Me getting 4 shots when many people in Africa or the middle east haven’t even had 1 makes me feel a bit guilty. However there are multiple vaccines now and its not like in March where there was more demand and supply (at least in the US), however I don’t know if global demand is still outstripping supply or if its more other bottlenecks.
Also I don’t know if there are negative side effects from getting multiple doses of the same vaccine over and over. Have any statements by medical organizations talking about the safety profile of getting 4 shots of a vaccine that was originally only intended to be given twice been released?
Refusing a booster because people in the third world can’t get a first shot reminds me a bit of straight people who said they wouldn’t get married until same-sex-marriage was legal. Worthy cause, not the best way to fight for it.
Last August, the CDC recommended that people with compromised immune systems get a third dose of either Pfizer or Moderna in order to raise their immunity levels. They’re ALSO supposed to get the booster shot–for a total of four injections–to boost waning immunity. Four injections therefore are not dangerous.
The vaccine doesn’t linger in the body and therefore can’t build up over time. It only instructs your body how to build a spike protein so it can recognize and attack the COVID virus. Getting a 5th, 6th, 7th, or 20th dose would only be a waste of ingredients, not a health threat.
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I know it’s early yet but I’d really like to know the condition of the folks who are known to be infected by omicron. We must already know something about the ‘hella infectiousness’ vs. ‘mildness’ of this mutation. Anyone know if/where I can find that data?
I think there’s an assumption among a lot of people that just because a new variant is identified, then it’s an “upgraded” version of the virus - more dangerous, the next step in COVID evolution. But there are variants that are less contagious, and/or less deadly all the time. They get out-competed by more contagious variants.
So just because omicron is newer, and has a more sinister name, doesn’t mean that it’s going to be any worse than delta. We know delta is bad, and it’s everywhere, and that’s what you should be worried about. Chances are any booster will be effective against both variants anyway - and if omicron becomes the main danger, and isn’t protected against by the current vaccine and needs its own new vaccine - they’re going to let you get that at the time anyway, and not say “oh nope, you took a non-omicron booster a few months ago, you no vaccine for you!”
So there’s no reason to 1) assume omicron is going to be worse than delta or 2) not get a booster right now.
It’s being studied now. It was unclear if it emerged in a place that had previously overall low disease, so it did not outcompete delta, or if it did, in fact, outcompete delta. That would tell us a lot about its infectiousness.
Because it’s just being identified, there’s really no data yet about its severity. Some anecdotes that it might be milder in young people. But there won’t be good data for a while, as the cases must be identified and the data collected and compared.
All that said, I too hope for a more contagious, very mild form. Let it outcompete all others, and let it immunize everyone who’s not already vaccinated by choice.
Get boosted. The vaccines available at your local drug store need to be used before they go bad. The unused doses aren’t going to go to third world countries, they will be disposed of when they past their expiration date.
Currently we don’t know enough about omicron to know if it’s a big threat or not. We do know that delta is everywhere and it is a big threat. You need the booster for delta now.
ETA: It’s important to remember that the population in the area that omicron came from average younger than anywhere else. As a general rule, younger people don’t get as sick or die as often as older people. What we are seeing about omicron being mild could just be due to the population that is being treated.