Having had Covid two weeks ago, I guess I’m now waiting for the fancy new shot instead of getting another of the bivalent booster. Hoping to go to England late September or October. (No firm plans at all yet.) Not sure if the timing will work out well for me…
XBB variants are the common ones these days; BA.5 + ancestral that the current booster targets appear to be long gone.
Getting an XBB booster after sufficient time post-infection could help boost your immune response to future XBB encounters, though who knows if some immunologically different variant will be the common one by then. (But getting a booster too soon post-infection would more likely be “wasted” while your antibodies from infection are still very high.)
Ugh, I’m sorry you were so sick. I don’t know how to determine whether to cancel the trip or not, I am scheduled to fly on day 7. I was planning to fully mask on the plane even before I got sick, I always mask in airports and planes now. I guess I’ll see how I’m feeling later this week.
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I just returned from getting my second bivalent; first time I got Pfizer, all the rest have been Moderna. I would have done it before the nephew wedding trip but was recovering from my eyelid/brow surgery. Luckily neither my husband (who stuck around the east coast for his college 50th reunion) nor I have have caught anything; at least testing negative.
Presuming they come up with an ABB booster (maybe combined with flu) this fall, I can wait until November or December to get a proper interval. I don’t do all that much hanging out among other people!
So @ucbalumnus is the current bivalent still useful? I know it stimulates antibodies to Omicron and XBB is in that family, but is it worth it to get the bivalent targeting BA.5 and the ancestral if they are basically gone?
Paxlovid may not be possible for me, at least at full dose, due to a drop in kidney function. That is another factor.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7205e1.htm suggests that the BA.5 + ancestral booster had about a 40-50% effectiveness (relative to vaccination against ancestral virus only) against symptomatic XBB infection in the first three months.
However, https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2302462 suggests a somewhat lower effectiveness against infection, peaking at around 30% (relative to vaccination against ancestral virus only) in the first two to four weeks after the BA.5 + ancestral booster, followed by gradual waning. Effectiveness against hospitalization and death was higher.
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Yes, and most markedly for the over-65 crowd. If I were younger, I wouldn’t have gotten the 2nd bivalent dose (and it wouldn’t have been recommended). It’s the older folks (and immunocompromised?) who would still benefit from the 2nd bivalent booster dose.
The three companies had already been developing various xbb boosters before the FDA officially sanctioned this last week. It’s anyone’s guess as to when they will be ready. I can’t see it will be soon enough to be before school starts, especially since school starts in August many places.
The 4-month “runway” between the last shot and the new xbb booster will probably be the shortest amount of time allowed. 6 months would be better.
For the current BA.5 + ancestral booster, the recommended minimum interval is only two months since the last ancestral only shot, with an even weaker statement about optionally delaying up to three months after an infection, even though somewhat longer intervals would likely be better for immune response in the longer term.
I don’t try to remember all the details, unless they apply to me. I imagine there aren’t many people at this point who would get the bivalent booster if they haven’t by now.
One thing the committee expressed at last week’s meeting was the necessity to simplify the messaging. The booster schedules got to be quite complicated, once the different formulations were introduced at different times. The public didn’t follow along. Many have given up on the vaccine, period. And they won’t get the new monovalent one, either, because they think it won’t work, it’s poison, or various other reasons.
I don’t think the CDC will really improve on their messaging strategies, no matter how wishful YLE is.
There are still so many unknowns in all of this, from long covid to durable immunity (T- and B-cells). And then add the politicization of covid-19…it’s such a big mess.
And I don’t think anything will improve when the next pandemic hits.
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part of this mess is that the response to vaccines vary so much from person to person. For some vaccines, they do prevent disease and are very valuable. We thought in the beginning that the covid vaccines would also work to do the same, and many rushed to get them. But now the message is, “you wont get as sick as if you had not had the vaccine”. 3 different people can have the same vaccine/exposure, and one will not get covid, one will get a very mild case, and one will still get sick.
I have no idea why i have not gotten Covid again (and watch I get it next week). I had it Jan 2022. I have kept up with my boosters, but the last one being last Sept. I travel a bunch , and go to large conventions and dont interrupt my life.
I was Covid-free until two weeks ago when I caught it on a cruise (no surprise there really). The symptoms were manageable with Nyquil, and I started testing negative on antigen tests on Day 11 and now I have an occasional cough. With diabetes and other chronic conditions I was concerned how things would go, and it sounds like I should still have a level of concern for cardiac problems in the next year. Fortunately (? is it ever fortunate to be on medications?) I’m already on metformin and have been for many years so I hope that does actually have a benefit for me. D (1 yr ago) and H (7 mo ago) previously have had Covid, and have continued to test negative. We all now have some degree of hybrid immunity and fingers crossed that will hold up going into the future.
I wonder if exposure to those with Covid acts as a “mini-booster” of sorts for people who have a strong immune system. I’m no immunologist, and despite having taken a course in immunology in the ancient past, I don’t have any idea if my speculation makes any sense.
I would rather get a mild cold like sickness (the predominant outcome I see among those I know who got COVID-19 after 3+ vaccines) than be extremely sick with a large risk of severe long COVID (which was more common among those I know who got COVID-19 before vaccines).
You have hybrid immunity with what was probably an Omicron BA.1 infection, plus last year’s booster with Omicron BA.5. So you have hybrid immunity with some Omicron protection. Although XBB can break through older Omicron immune response, the older Omicron immune response does provide some protection against XBB infection (and more serious outcomes).
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Vaccinated people who get very very sick might well have died had they not been vaccinated.
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I fully get that many might have died. I also know many people who got the first rounds of vaccines, have gotten covid (and not long covid), and have not gotten any boosters. I read somewhere that the major majority of the population has either been vaccinated or have had covid.
I do believe more people would take boosters if they thought it might prevent them from getting covid again; especially those who did not get very sick. I know that here the attitude is that every time you get covid it could become long covid , and we dont know the long term affects, but in my circle this is not the case. I was just answering as to why they uptake in the boosters is not prevalent. I will likely get my own fall booster again because of the travel /work that I do (4 trade shows this fall), but if by any chance I get Covid before the booster is ready, I likely will not.
I got COVID-19 (almost certainly BA.5) a few weeks before the BA.5 + ancestral booster became available. I just waited about 7 months before getting the booster in order to the most use out of it and not waste it by getting it too soon.
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I am still trying to decide on getting a second bivalent booster (my 6th shot). Concerned about immune exhaustion and imprinting, but also that the new shot may come out in early Sept. and I will have to wait. I have autoimmune disorders which are flaring this summer and that is another concern. Any new info out on this decision?
It’s been more than two weeks since I was exposed to my friend who got COVID, so I guess I’m safe. Whew!
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Not as close to your friend as you thought? 
The article below worries me - the immune system is complex, and these mRNA vaccines are relatively new. I’ve had 3 Pfizers and 1 Moderna, most recent dose last July, but I’m hesitant to boost with another mRNA vaccine. Hoping for a protein-based vaccine that is specific for Omicron to become available in the USA.
IgG4 Antibodies Induced by Repeated Vaccination May Generate Immune Tolerance to the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein
“emerging evidence suggests that the reported increase in IgG4 levels detected after repeated vaccination with the mRNA vaccines may not be a protective mechanism; rather, it constitutes an immune tolerance mechanism to the spike protein that could promote unopposed SARS-CoV2 infection and replication by suppressing natural antiviral responses. Increased IgG4 synthesis due to repeated mRNA vaccination with high antigen concentrations may also cause autoimmune diseases, and promote cancer growth and autoimmune myocarditis in susceptible individuals.”
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That is a very concerning article. I guess the good news is we are able to ask these questions now without being given a certain label.
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