By Alice Park
Health Matters
IN THE THIRD YEAR OF THE COVID-19 pandemic, it may be time to rethink booster recommendations, says one vaccine expert who serves on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee. In a Perspective published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Paul Offit makes a case for why it may be time to reconsider blanket booster recommendations that apply to everyone equally.
For one, the latest Omicron booster, a bivalent dose that targets both the original and Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants, is no longer up to date. When it was authorized in August 2022, the BA.4 and BA.5 variants were expected to cause most of the new infections in the U.S. Now, different Omicron variants like XBB have taken over.
In addition, studies show that people who received the bivalent Omicron booster don’t make appreciably higher levels of virus-fighting antibodies against the BA.4 and BA.5 strains than people who received the original booster. That means, as most people already know, that getting the booster doesn’t mean you won’t get infected with the virus. The booster does, however, keep people from developing severe COVID-19 illness, so Offit says it still provides critical protection for the elderly and people with weakened immune systems. Bur for otherwise healthy people, the bivalent shot is protecting against mild illness from Omicron strains that already cause only mild disease to
