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COVID-19 vaccine boosters are being recommended eight months after a person's second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
"A vaccine booster dose is generally an additional dose above and beyond the primary series needed to achieve protective immunity," says Dr. Gregory Poland, an infectious diseases expert and head of Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group. "So the dose that was approved this past week would be better classified as an 'additional dose' for those who are moderately to severely immunocompromised."
Dr. Poland says those people will have already received two doses, but they need the additional dose in order to improve their immune response to the vaccine.
Dr. Poland continues, "Offering a third dose of the same vaccine to older adults, health care providers and essential workers, that would be a 'booster dose.' Then if we used a variant-specific vaccine, which researchers are working on, that would be called a 'variant booster dose,'" says Dr. Poland.
In this Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast, Dr. Poland talks extensively about additional and booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccines, and he discusses the latest COVID-19 research regarding pregnancy and fertility. He also addresses concerns about the variants that experts are predicting will come after the current delta variant.
"So, for the unvaccinated they keep moving into more and more dangerous phases of the pandemic, as each new variant arises," says Dr. Poland.
NOTE: This podcast with Dr. Poland was recorded earlier this week before news of the decision to offer boosters, scheduled to begin in September.
Read the full transcript.
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Information in this post was accurate at the time of its posting. Due to the fluid nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific understanding, along with guidelines and recommendations, may have changed since the original publication date.
Research disclosures for Dr. Gregory Poland.
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Is it fair to say the vaccine prevents a new infection but does not cure an existing one?
@mavolyn- Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. Vaccines do not prevent new infections, however, vaccines do lower severe illness and death. Vaccines do not cure, they help your immune system fight off illness.
A vaccine forces your immune system to make antibodies against a specific disease. Then, if you come into contact with them again, your immune system knows what to do.
Are you asking because you think that you have COVID, or trying to decide if you will get a vaccine?
In regard to your question: " is it possible to determine whether they indicate a new infection or a pre-existing one?" Tests for COVID-19 determine if you have the virus, not if you have the virus not when you were infected. Reliable antibody testing can show that, but at this point, the test that is used for that doesn't include this information.
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1 ReactionI accepted all vaccinations as they became available and had no unfavorable results. It is concerning that people are refusing vaccine because they know of cases that appeared shortly after someone was vaccinated. They assume the vaccine caused the infection!
As you know there r exceptions to every rule.
I had 2 moderna shots.
I am on rituxan so i decided to get antibofy trst.
Got ZERO antibodies- no protection at all! I will ho for a 3rd shot. Most likely followed by a booster to try to remedy this.