How Many Booster Shots Do You Need? Experts Weigh In

The Centers for Disease Control published a report earlier this month detailing how long the COVID-19 booster shot provides immunity, finding that its potency lasts around four months. People have thus been wondering how long they need to wait before getting another one, or if they even need to at all.

At a White House COVID briefing on Feb. 16, Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci addressed the question of whether or not people would need a fourth booster shot while citing various studies that concluded that a mere booster shot provides enough immunity for those who are not immunocompromised.

“This should not be confused with the fact that for many immunocompromised people, already a second booster shot — namely a fourth dose of an mRNA — is recommended because of what we know about their poor response to the initial regimen,” he clarified. “...New CDC data indicate, that booster shots are safe and well-tolerated.”

According to The New York Times, health officials nationwide do not intend on advising a fourth dose in the near future. A study published in bioRxiv found that a third mRNA vaccine [Pfizer or Moderna] dose evokes the body to produce an extensive assortment of antibodies, making it hard for any variant of COVID to avoid.

"These data help explain why a 3rd dose of an mRNA vaccine that was not specifically designed to protect against variants is effective against variant-induced serious disease," the authors of the study wrote.

A study published in Nature found that the Omicron variant is not triggering an immune response, and is thus evading protection from the vaccines. Due to the multiple mutations in the spike protein, Omicron is still able to cause infection. It is still recognizable by a body that has been infected or vaccinated, however.

According to WebMD, the seven-day daily average of infections is down around 40% from the week prior, with hospitalizations being down almost 30%. Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt Univerity hopes that the combination of natural immunity and vaccination will create more drops in cases, and says “if that is the case, we don't need a booster anytime soon."