Can I get a second COVID-19 booster shot? Here’s what we know.
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A Star-Telegram reader asks: My first Pfizer vaccination was on Feb. 27. My second was on March 20. My booster was on Sept. 20. We are now approaching four months since my booster. Can you find out if I should obtain a second booster if that is permitted and, if so, when should I schedule that booster?
If you’re immunocompromised and you’ve received two primary vaccine doses, you can get a third primary dose 28 days later, followed by a booster five months later. But if you’ve already received two primary doses and a single booster, you currently cannot get a second booster.
In fact, no one can get a second booster shot right now.
Why? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s director said this at a Jan. 7 briefing.
“Our strategy has to be to maximize the protection of the tens of millions of people who continue to be eligible for a third shot before we start thinking about what a fourth shot would look like,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky said.
The CDC recommends that people with severely weakened immune systems get three primary doses (instead of two) followed by a booster shot, meaning they receive a total of four vaccine doses.
Most people have gotten two primary doses and one booster.
A second booster shot might be authorized as early as March.
Vaccine companies Moderna and Pfizer announced in January that people may need a second vaccine booster for increased protection. Both companies are working on second boosters targeting the omicron variant.
“Assuming omicron is an acceleration to the endemic phase, I still believe we’re going to need boosters in the fall of ‘22 and forward,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said at a healthcare conference on Jan. 6.
One state, West Virginia, has requested that a second round of COVID-19 booster shots become allowed. If approved, high-risk individuals, including those ages 50 and over, essential workers and immunocompromised people could receive a fourth vaccine dose four months after the third.
The data on a fourth vaccine dose is limited: one study found that the second booster elevates antibodies five-fold a week after the shot is administered.
Dr. Thomas Giordano, chief of infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine, says the science around second boosters is uncertain.
“There’s not a whole lot of data to support it,” Giordano said. “I don’t think there’s a clear rationale or justification for doing it at this time. We just need a little bit more time to sort things out, and get a little bit better handle on how long immunity is lasting. It seems like the protections from the vaccines is lasting quite a bit.”
More clinical studies need to be done to see whether immunity wanes several months after the first booster, in which case the second booster would become beneficial.
This story was originally published January 10, 2022 at 5:41 PM.
