Health

Should you incorporate Omicron Booster?


Health officials say it’s time for most Americans to get another booster shot — this time, with a Specific footage of Omicron manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech (for people 12 years of age and older) or Moderna (for adults 18 years of age and older). But should you stick with the brand of vaccine you’re using or can you mix and match? Here are the things to know.

Mixing and matching booster doses can be fine

Several COVID-19 vaccines have been available in the US since the first ones were licensed in late 2020. Currently, two mainline COVID-19 vaccines (made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) have been released. approved by the US Department of Food and Drugs. The regulator (FDA) and two (manufactured by Johnson & Johnson-Janssen and Novavax) are authorized for emergency use. Injections from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are approved as boosters and J&J boosters are authorized for people who have received that brand for their single-dose main injection or for those who cannot receive boosters. other boosters safely because of the risk of side effects.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that people do not mix the two main doses of the mRNA vaccine – so if you were given the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, don’t mix it. Your second dose should also come from Pfizer-BioNTech; the same goes for Moderna. But the abundance of options means you could have gotten a booster dose from another manufacturer and that’s perfectly fine. Learn showed that those who received an mRNA-enhanced dose of the parent vaccine produced by a manufacturer other than the main line produced antibodies against the same virus against SARS-CoV-2, compared with those who received administer the same brand of primary vaccine and booster vaccine. .

Such was the case with the original vaccine and boosters. But Human research on the new Omicron booster has not been completed not yet – they will hit the market in September – so there is no data yet on what happens when people who have had one company’s shots are then given an Omicron booster shot by another other production. It’s also unclear what would happen, for example, if someone who had been vaccinated with Moderna, then boosted with Pfizer-BioNTech’s, is now given a booster shot with Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna Omicron.

But based on previous studies of mixing and matching, health officials are relatively confident that booster doses are interchangeable, and the CDC speak people over 18 “may get a different booster than the one they get for their main series, as long as it’s Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna.”

One thing to note, however, is that Moderna’s vaccine dose is slightly higher than that from Pfizer-BioNTech. The same is true of Moderna’s new Omicron enhancer. The higher dose means that people taking Moderna’s Omicron booster may experience a slightly higher rate of side effects, such as swelling, arm pain, fever, and fatigue, compared to people taking Pfizer – BioNTech. But it can have an advantage, if experience with initial enhanced shots is any guide. Earlier learn relative to those who received the original Moderna booster showed that they produced higher levels of antibodies against the virus than those who received the Pfizer-BioNTech enhancer.

Can you mix and match booster doses for children?

It depends on your child’s age and the type of vaccine they have received as their main series. Children 12 to 17 years of age who have received Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech shots as their primary series can be boosted with Pfizer-BioNTech’s new Omicron booster. Neither of the Omicron boosters has been approved for children under 12 years old — so those children will still get a booster shot of the original vaccine (if they qualify for a booster).

If your child has been vaccinated with Moderna as a main series, booster doses of Moderna of any kind — parent or Omicron-specific — have not been approved for children between six months and 11 years of age. Children in this age group who have received Moderna vaccine are not recommended to receive a booster dose at this time. Children 5 to 11 years of age who have been vaccinated with Pfizer-BioNTech can only receive the parenteral booster vaccine, not the divalent Omicron booster vaccine manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech.

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