Need to combine COVID-19 booster shoots?

Strengthening protection against severe COVID-19 while avoiding the risk of rare vaccine side effects should not be rocket science.

However, ask an expert who advised federal regulators to allow additional shots. There is no simple formula To guide American decisions about booster shots.

Whether you should Get booster shots When Which one to get It depends on who you are, the medical vulnerabilities you have, and the vaccine you first received. The people you live with and the type of work you do may also influence your choice.

And there is the personal question of how much the risk of side effects of COVID-19 and vaccines is acceptable.

Even if vaccination is delayed over time, it is reasonable that many fully vaccinated adolescents or those who have been infected before and after vaccination remain very unlikely to get sick. You can judge.

Experts who advised the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week Clarified They weren’t Recommended All boosters; they recommended to millions of people who were fully vaccinated Can be accessed Booster shots if they want.

New government research on vaccine mixing and matching has added more options, and thus more complexity, to the booster issue.

The results so far are tentative and participants are still being tracked. However, after at least 12 weeks of follow-up, researchers have not detected any adverse effects on people who were first vaccinated with one COVID-19 vaccine and then boosted with another vaccine.

These encouraging discoveries put CDC director Rochelle Walensky in the hands of the patient.

“Some people may prefer the type of vaccine they first received, and others may prefer to get another booster,” the agency issued late Thursday. Said in the new guidance that was given. “CDC recommendations allow this type of mix-and-match administration of booster shots.”

Now, in addition to asking yourself if you really need a booster, the question is whether you should look for a different shot than the one you originally got. Here are some things to keep in mind when making a decision:

Maximize boost

If you’re looking to maximize your immunity boost, you’re out of luck: the data isn’t yet in to guide your quest.

The new study includes three groups of 150 fully immunized individuals. One was vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the other was vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine, and the other shot Johnson & Johnson. The researchers picked up each group and further divided it into three arms, each with 50 people. Participants in one arm of each group were boosted with the same products they originally obtained. The second and third arms of each group were boosted with one of the remaining vaccines approved for use in the United States.

It is a novel and clever design. However, at this time, not enough people have been tracked for enough time for scientists to make meaningful comparisons between groups.

Early efforts in research to measure antibody jumps to fight coronavirus have shown that mixing is generally not worse than matching, and sometimes it is better.

Especially for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the data show that those who took the first J & J shot had a slight increase in antibody levels after 15 days when adding the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine. Second inoculation of J & J.

When using either Pfizer or Moderna booster after any of the three major courses of vaccine, the antibody booster was about the same.

Therefore, safety considerations provide the best guide for anyone who needs to consider mixing and matching.

Women considering J & J boosters

By October 13, the Vaccine Safety Monitor had detected 47 rare cases of blood coagulation disorders in people who received a single dose of the J & J vaccine.

This is a small portion of the 15.3 million doses of J & J vaccine given.But it’s called a disability Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, Or TTS — life-threatening. Five people have died in this condition, causing runaway coagulation, which is extremely difficult to treat.

Three-quarters of the J & J vaccinated people who developed TTS were women aged 18-49. Four of the five who died were women.

Tests that may predict the risk of developing TTS are not immediately available. Therefore, women under the age of 50 who want more protection may consider looking for a Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for booster shots.

Young man taking a shot of Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech

For every 1 million young men aged 18 to 24 years who received one of the mRNA vaccines twice, safety monitors detected somewhere in 37 to 39 cases. Myocarditis Also Pericarditis — Inflammation of the myocardium or the tissues around it.

This percentage was highest in men under the age of 21, but was seen to decrease in men up to the age of 29. (Not so often, but also in women.) And slightly higher in the first inoculated young men. Pfizer-Moderna vaccine than anyone who got BioNTech.

The condition was much more common after the second dose than the first dose. Some experts fear that a third dose may exacerbate the risk.

Myocarditis and pericarditis are very rare side effects, and in more than three-quarters of cases, their symptoms (chest tightness, tightness, or pain) disappeared over time and over-the-counter medications. However, heart irregularities need to be taken seriously, and no one knows if an inflammatory attack will have long-term effects.

For safety, cardiologists generally recommend that you stop strenuous exercise for 3 to 6 months after a case of any condition. If a young male athlete who has been vaccinated with one of the mRNA vaccines feels that a third dose is needed, consider getting a J & J booster or switching from Moderna to Pfizer-BioNTech.

People with a history of Guillain-Barré syndrome

Guillain-Barré Syndrome, Or GBS, is a response to an infection or vaccine in which the immune system attacks nerves and sometimes causes paralysis that lasts for months.

The FDA’s adverse event monitoring system has collected at least 130 reports of people across the age group who developed GBS after receiving the J & J vaccine, but has not increased among those who received the mRNA vaccine. This week, the British government added a warning about rare cases of GBS after using AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. It is not licensed for use in the United States, but its design is similar to the J & J vaccine.

People with a personal or family history of GBS vaccinated with the J & J vaccine should consider switching to either the mRNA vaccine as a booster and should avoid the J & J vaccine as an early course booster for Pfizer or Modana. ..