With COVID cases waning, people nationwide are returning to “normal.” Despite the COVID situation seemingly improving, the virus remains a deadly threat that takes the lives of thousands of people daily. Booster shots have been lauded as a way to “boost” resistance to the virus, but with the risk of over-activating the immune system, the question remains: how effective are they?
The CDC recommends all eligible people (older than 12 if receiving Pfizer or older than 18 if receiving Moderna) take a booster vaccine at least five months after receiving both doses of the COVID vaccine. As with other vaccines such as tetanus or meningitis, the effectiveness of the COVID vaccine decreases over time, hence the need for a booster shot. COVID-19 in particular is a rapidly mutating strain that gives rise to variants that can be more deadly or virulent than their predecessors, so a booster shot is important in the fight against it.
Booster shots are not designed to protect against a specific variant, but they have been shown to help protect against variants like Delta or Omicron. Johns Hopkins University reported that “a boosted person with a breakthrough COVID-19 infection will experience less intense symptoms.” This means a boosted person will be sick for a shorter time, not to mention have a lower likelihood of getting hospitalized or passing on the virus to others. With these benefits, it can be hard to see a negative of getting the booster shots, as one student found.
“I always intended to get the booster when [it became] allowed… it helps keep me, my family and my friends safe,” sophomore Vishakha Joshi said. “It’s the easiest way to protect yourself and get closer to the end of this whole pandemic.”
Booster shots seem to have very few drawbacks—besides a mild to medium pain and fever that can present themselves within a day or so of receiving the vaccine—but the problem arises if we are constantly advised to get another dose every few months. If enough people do not take their vaccinations, those of us that do will continue to have to take a booster as more and more variants will arise in unvaccinated populations. All vaccines activate the immune system, so it is unknown what the potential negative effects of constantly “boosting” every five or so months would be.
Ultimately, the only way to get rid of COVID is to achieve herd immunity, a term for when enough people are immunized that the virus can no longer spread as easily from person to person, eventually dying out. At least for now, that means people have to get vaccinated, but more than that, get boosted. After all, we don’t want to be caught in a cycle of only a few million people boosting every five months, leaving the entire population powerless to the random mutations of COVID that may become something worse. It’s time to put down the conspiracy theories and get vaccinated.
