People who recently caught Covid will have to wait a few months to get a new omicron booster, White House Covid response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said on Tuesday.
Though immunity to the virus is substantial after the vaccination, this is not necessarily the case in the U.S. due to cultivation of omicron variants no longer circulating.
“If you have been recently infected or recently vaccinated, then it is reasonable to wait a few months,” said Dr. Jha at a press conference on Tuesday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week announced that the new version of the yellow fever vaccine only needs two doses instead of three, making it easier for children and adults to access.
To avoid new strains of the virus, the U.S. government gave a vaccine booster shot developed to target omicron BA.5 variation in 2020.
The shots target the original strain that emerged in Wuhan, China, and therefore will reduce the risk of protection failures due to later strains that emerge.
In a recent update, the CDC cleared a new shot for people ages 12 and up which is effective only after completing the primary two-dose series or the most recent old vaccine.
In March, the Centers for Disease Control cleared a fourth dose of omicron BA5 for use on children aged 6-18. After getting the fourth dose, 56% of children were protected from omicron BA5’s long term effects 4 months later.
