Will We Need a Yearly COVID Booster, Just Like the Flu Shot?
COVID-19 booster vaccine
Fall foliage is out in full force—and so are new COVID-19 boosters.
You already (probably) know that there's a new annual flu shot to combat new strains and mutations of the influenza virus. There have been a lot of strains of COVID-19 as well, and the idea behind boosters is essentially the same as that behind the flu shot.
Still, COVID is pretty new, and cases are seriously on the rise right now. Should we expect to get a new COVID-19 booster annually? Here's what immunologists and infectious disease experts say.
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Should We Expect New COVID Boosters Every Year?
In a word: Yes.
"In January, the FDA unanimously voted in favor of deploying a yearly COVID booster. They would like to simplify the schedule of how COVID boosters are given, in a similar fashion to the current flu shot," Dr. Martin A. Smith, MD, a Cleveland Clinic-affiliated immunologist, tells Parade. "The FDA panel was made up of 21 experts on the matter including immunologists and infectious disease specialists, who all voted in favor of an annual booster."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, annual COVID-19 vaccines will basically be the norm, just like the flu shot is.
"At this point, it looks like the COVID-19 virus is here to stay," Dr. Julie Gerberding, infectious disease expert and president and CEO of the Foundation for the National Institute of Health, says. "The viruses that cause COVID-19 and influenza are both highly contagious and are constantly changing. In the same way that influenza vaccines are changed each year to better match the most likely variants, COVID-19 vaccines will likely continue to be changed to match the most common variants as they emerge."
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Dr. Greg Schrank, MD, an immunologist with the University of Maryland Medical Center, explained it in terms almost anyone can understand.
"Essentially, boosters are a reminder to our immune system to refocus its attention and generate more antibodies against these viruses, as they wane over time and new strains emerge. Boosters re-train our immune system against these strains," he said. "Think of it with this sports analogy: This is sort of like the off-season, we're coming back into the next season and need to go through some training camp. It's not like we forgot how to play football, our immune system just needs to shake off the rust a little bit."
That said, it remains to be seen if we may actually need more frequent boosters for COVID-19. According to Dr. Tamara Sheffield, MD, senior medical director of preventive medicine at Intermountain Health, "It is still too early to predict whether a variant would develop that is so genetically or structurally different from current variants that it would evade our population immunity and would need to have a new vaccine formulation created earlier than in an annual cadence." Dr. Sheffield explained that logistically, an annual shot, akin to the flu shot, is simply easier to administer for the government, as well as for vaccine manufacturers—and it's more likely patients will get one shot per year than they would multiple jabs.
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What Are the Biggest Benefits of Getting Your Annual COVID-19 Vaccine?
In case you needed a reminder: "Vaccination remains the number one way to protect against respiratory illnesses like COVID-19 and flu," Dr. Kevin Ban, MD, chief medical officer of Walgreens notes, adding, "It may help prevent you from getting COVID or the flu, and will help lessen the intensity of the illness if you do get sick."
As we know all too well, severe cases of COVID-19 can lead to hospitalization and death, especially for more vulnerable populations. It makes it extra important to stay up to date, Dr. Ban says, explaining, "The COVID or flu vaccines you got last season are not the same formulation, and you need the updated vaccines for this season to protect yourself and others."
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What's more, Dr. Ban points out, is that COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters may likely reduce your risk of long COVID, which has a lot of symptoms and no current proven treatments. And considering it's estimated that some 18 million Americans have already been afflicted with long COVID symptoms, you'll absolutely want to protect yourself.
According to Dr. Smith, it's especially important for kids to get flu and COVID-19 shots.
"In the most recent flu season, 90 percent of children who succumbed to the flu were unvaccinated. In past seasons we see a similar trend, where on average 80 percent of children who died from flu were unvaccinated," he explained. "The data thus fully supports that the annual flu shot is a must."
Dr. Smith says that even though there isn't as much data on COVID-19 vaccines' impact on child mortality specifically (because everything is still so new), "The COVID-19 vaccine has been shown to protect against severe illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19. This is especially true if a person has no history of prior COVID infection, is considered high risk or is immunocompromised. Just like the flu, the COVID virus keeps mutating, and thus new variants are formed. Boosters basically update the antigenic target on the virus, to protect you from new variants."
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What Are Other Ways To Protect Yourself From COVID-19?
Here's what Dr. Smith recommends:
Avoiding crowded indoor spaces when community COVID rates are up
Masking up in crowded indoor spaces
Staying home when you're sick
Testing for COVID if you have symptoms or have been exposed to COVID-19 through another infected person
Isolating if you're infected with COVID-19
Connecting with your doctor if you're infected to see if you're a candidate for antiviral treatments
Washing your hands regularly or using hand sanitizers with at least 60% alcohol
Covering your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze
Ensuring indoor areas are properly ventilated by opening windows and doors, running the air conditioner or heating, and using high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration systems
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