The Updated COVID Vaccines Are Here: 9 Things to Know – Yale Medicine

[Originally published: Oct. 2, 2023. Updated: Feb. 29, 2024.]

Note: Information in this article was accurate at the time of original publication. Because information about COVID-19 changes rapidly, we encourage you to visit the websites of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), and your state and local government for the latest information.

There has been better protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19 since newly updated (20232024 formula) mRNA COVID vaccines became available last fall. Shots are available to protect everyone 6 months and older from serious illness, hospitalization, and death from the disease.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) approved the updated vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna for everyone 6 months and older, and authorized an updated Novavax vaccine for those 12 and older in the fall of 2023. In February of this year, the CDC recommended an additional dose for adults ages 65 and older.

The vaccines target XBB.1.5, a subvariant of Omicron that dominated the United Statesand the worldfrom November 2021 until last year. The CDC says the updated vaccines should also work against currently circulating variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virusmany of which descended from, or are related to, the XBB strain. The vaccine is also expected to protect against JN.1, the current dominant strain in the U.S.

While COVID-19 has been causing mostly mild illness recently, Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist Onyema Ogbuagu, MBBCh, reminds people that the disease can still lead to hospitalization and death. Infections can have long-term consequences, Dr. Ogbuagu says, adding that even healthy people can develop Long COVIDa condition in which new, continuing, or recurring (and sometimes debilitating) symptoms are present four or more weeks after an initial coronavirus infection.

Below, Yale experts tell you what you need to know about the updated COVID vaccine.

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The Updated COVID Vaccines Are Here: 9 Things to Know - Yale Medicine