Bivalent COVID-19 Boosters

The Bivalent COVID-19 boosters became available on September 2, 2022 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2022). But what exactly is a bi-valent booster? According to Desmon (2022), a bivalent booster takes parts of the original COVID vaccine and combines it with portions of the BA.5 omicron variant (the most circulating one in the U.S. currently).

This is an important advancement in the fight against COVID-19 because now we have the power to stop a potential winter surge. While the original vaccine was very protective against severe disease, it lost its protection against infection and transmission as the virus evolved (Jha, 2022). Individuals with previous COVID infection should also consider taking the updated vaccine because if they recovered from a non-omicron variant/subvariant, it does not necessarily mean that there is protection from the BA.5 variant the vaccine is targeting (Sheikh, 2022).

Eligibility criteria for the 2 bivalent boosters by Moderna and Pfizer are slightly different. There is also the timeline of if you had a previous COVID infection, how old you are, and when your last dose of a COVID shot was. If you had a previous COVID infection, the CDC (2022) recommends that you wait 3 months from when symptoms began or if you did not have symptoms, when you first received a positive test. Individuals aged 6 and older are eligible for the Moderna bivalent booster vaccine and those 5 and older are allowed to take the Pfizer version (FDA, 2022). You also would have to wait 2 months from a previous COVID vaccine dose (CDC, 2022). The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also recommends that anyone who meets eligibility criteria and is pregnant, postpartum, or breastfeeding also get the vaccine (Miles, 2022). Please talk with your physician and consult the CDC’s When You Can Get Your Booster tool on this page for more specific information regarding your circumstances.

Side effects of the bivalent studies are much like the original vaccine, which include fatigue, headache, fever, skin redness, and muscle pain (Curley, 2022).

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, October 14). Stay up to date with covid-19 vaccines including boosters. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html