Federal health officials aren’t giving any specific recommendations, other than to say it’s important to get a booster especially for those at high risk. But in the absence of an official recommendation, how do you make a decision? Here’s what we know:
U.S. regulators said transplant recipients and others with severely weakened immune systems can get an extra dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.Caregivers and family members of people with severely compromised immune systems should take extra precautions to make sure they don’t transmit the coronavirus, said Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, a medical epidemiologist and infectious diseases expert at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
“Even with a booster, some immunosuppressed patients will remain vulnerable to COVID,” Wachter said. “This is one reason why even people at relatively low risk for a bad COVID outcome — young, healthy people — have a moral obligation to get vaccinated: An unvaccinated person has a good chance of getting Delta and spreading it to others.”
For people who are visiting elderly family members who are not immunocompromised, one protective strategy is to take a rapid coronavirus test just before a visit, and certainly to stay home if you feel sick. I originally got the J&J shot and am unhappy the Moderna booster is half the dose as the original shot. Am I being shortchanged?
“You don’t need 76 times” the level of antibodies, said Dr. Monica Gandhi, a UC San Francisco infectious-disease expert. Also, seeing the number of antibodies produced in a test tube gives only a partial answer to what booster is really better.