Should You Get an Additional COVID-19 Bivalent Booster?

The number of cases of COVID-19 may be dropping, but the disease is still a concern for those who are 65 and older (more than 53 million people in the United States) and those with weak immune systems (about 7 million people). Those two groups are more likely than others to get severely ill or die from COVID-19thats why the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are offering a second bivalent booster shot.

This booster is identical to the reformulated, or "bivalent," booster introduced in fall 2022 in that it targets two virus strains: Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 and the original SARS-CoV-2 virus. The bivalent boosters are available from both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

I support the booster for those who are eligible and want to get it, says Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist Scott Roberts, MD.

Studies have shown that COVID-19 vaccines can prevent COVID-related hospitalization and death. Whats more, the vast majority of the more than 1.1 million deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. have been in people 50 and older, and the numbers increase with age, according to CDC data. Still, only 42.4% of people 65 and olderand 16.7% of all eligible people in the U.S.have gotten the first bivalent shot, according to the CDC. I consider that number to be quite poor, Dr. Roberts says.

As part of a bigger plan, the FDA also announced that the current bivalent mRNA vaccines will replace the original monovalent Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, which target the original, or ancestral, SARS-CoV-2 virus strain; they are no longer authorized for use in the U.S.

The agency is also planning to further simplify future COVID-19 vaccinations by offering a reformulated booster for a vastly expanded age group in the fall, around the same time as the flu shot becomes available. That booster will be based on recommendations about current circulating SARS-CoV-2 virus strains.

Below, Dr. Roberts answered common questions about the FDA's decision to offer an additional COVID-19 booster to certain groups.

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Should You Get an Additional COVID-19 Bivalent Booster?