Your Questions About the Booster, Answered

Why should I get the booster?

The original vaccine shot wears off after about six months, and with the appearance of new variants that might have more resistance to the vaccine Getting the booster adds an extra bit of protection that you wouldn’t have otherwise. Since omicron is more transmissible the chance of infection is higher and there is no downside to having an added layer of protection against the virus. Also if you have a comorbidity, bringing the risk of hospitalization down even a little bit should be high in your priorities. It is also proven that getting the booster can reduce covid spread so if you know older folks or children too young to be vaccinated getting the booster will help reduce the risk of infecting them. It will also reduce the risk of getting long-term heart and lung damage and long COVID. 

What about children too young to get vaccinated (5 and younger)?

Trials are already being run and Dr. Fauci hopes that they will be eligible to get the vaccine in the early parts of this year. 

What are the risks of getting vaccinated?

So some people are worried about myocarditis which is are very rare temporary heart inflammation young men are getting with the Pfizer vaccine. Another worry some people have are long-term unknown side effects but the CDC said that these are unlikely and purely theoretical and aren’t worth the worst of COVID which is the only known problem at the moment.