Should I get the booster? Talk to me!

[M1RR0R]

I’m so conflicted so I could do with some (calm not scaremongering) advice. I know how hysterical some people can be so I’m prepared

• 28
• No health conditions but a bit fat
• 2 moderna jabs
• Covid positive on 11th November
• Slight snuffly nose with covid

I haven’t had the booster yet & I just don’t want it! I don’t want the side effects & because I’ve not long had covid I feel it’s unnecessary. DH is trying to talk me into it but I just can’t see any reason why it would benefit me or my family. Best case scenario is a sore arm but my second moderna floored me!

I’d be happy to get the booster next winter and I get the flu jab every year (I even pay) but I’m viewing having covid as my ‘booster’ this winter. What would you do? Thoughts?

www.cnbc.com/2021/12/10/boosters-give-70percent-75percent-protection-against-mild-disease-from-omicron-uk-health-security-agency-says.html

If I was you, I wouldn't even consider it, no.

@LyndaLaHughes

Your previous infection will not offer protection against omicron I'm afraid so yes you absolutely do need the booster.

Why on EARTH would this be the case?! The booster jab is not specifically formulated to target Omicron, it's just another dose of the original formulation. Having had actual COVID recently - no matter which variant - will surely be BETTER protection than a booster jab?

I had COVID (presumably Delta) in October. I'll be getting my booster in a few weeks' time, but for the moment I'm confident that the immune response I mounted for the actual wild infection will give me all the protection I need.

@lorca

Your previous infection will not offer protection against omicron I'm afraid so yes you absolutely do need the booster. - does the booster stop you getting Omicron? (No) Does it stop you spreading Omicron? (No)

Why would you get a booster that doesn't stop you getting what is widely reported as a very mild virus?

Are we all so afraid of getting ill? Even mildly?

1. It might not stop you catching or spreading it entirely but it definitely goes some good way towards doing this.
2. The reason why it's a mild virus for most is because they're fully vaccinated. For the unvaccinated or partly vaccinated the risks of serious or long lasting illness are far higher.

What effect do booster doses have?
In September researchers in Israel, one of the earliest countries to roll out boosters, reported that a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine substantially cut rates of infection and of severe illness in people aged over 60, when compared with those who had only two doses. Using data from more than 1.1 million people aged 60 or over (30 July to 31 August 2021), they found that at least 12 days after the booster dose the rate of confirmed infection was lower in the booster group than in the non-booster group by a factor of 11.3 (95% confidence interval 10.4 to 12.3). The rate of severe illness was also lower in the booster group, by a factor of 19.5 (12.9 to 29.5).

*Why on EARTH would this be the case?! The booster jab is not specifically formulated to target Omicron, it's just another dose of the original formulation. Having had actual COVID recently - no matter which variant - will surely be BETTER protection than a booster jab?

I had COVID (presumably Delta) in October. I'll be getting my booster in a few weeks' time, but for the moment I'm confident that the immune response I mounted for the actual wild infection will give me all the protection I need.*

Because omicron is more able to evade natural immunity than vaccine immunity. That's why.

That Israeli study was before Omicron. I don't see much evidence that the booster stops you catching Omicron. Not really a surprise as Omicron is very different from the earlier variants that the vaccines are much better against.

@TheElusivePotato

I was looking at a travel insurance policy this morning and it said you were only covered for Covid related claims if you had taken all vaccinations offered to you, including the booster! (Other than medical exemptions).

Which policy was that?

I was meant to be having my booster today but I've delayed it to mid Jan - originally because I didn't want to risk feeling like crap on NYE, but now I'm glad I delayed a bit as the later I leave it, the longer it will be in effect for travel/covid passport. I want to go abroad in Feb so will need it done in enough time in Jan to allow the 14 days post jab to elapse.

I had Covid in September. Advice then was booster after 6 months here in lreland so March for me. It took me until December to recover as no energy etc. Now they have changed to 3 months and l can get it but so reluctant to as hate anything new going into my body after the fall out from Covid. I felt so unwell for 3 months.
Am leaving it until Christmas period is over so not miserable while all my dc home. I am being very cautious due to Omicron being rampant around here.
So here in Ireland you would need to wait 3 months to be allowed the booster.

Antibodies from people double-vaccinated with any of the four most widely used vaccines—Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson—were significantly less effective at neutralizing the omicron variant compared to the ancestral virus. Antibodies from previously infected individuals were even less likely to neutralize omicron.

@Nappyvalley15

That Israeli study was before Omicron. I don't see much evidence that the booster stops you catching Omicron. Not really a surprise as Omicron is very different from the earlier variants that the vaccines are much better against.

The odds that vaccinated people will catch the virus if a household member becomes infected are nearly three to four times higher with Omicron than with Delta, but booster doses reduce that risk, new findings suggest.
Researchers analyzed transmission data collected from nearly 12,000 infected households in Denmark, including 2,225 households with an Omicron infection. Overall, there were 6,397 secondary infections in the week after the first infection in the house. After accounting for other risk factors, the rate of person-to-person spread of the virus to fully vaccinated people was roughly 2.6 times higher in Omicron households than in Delta households, the researchers reported on Monday on medRxiv ahead of peer review. Booster-vaccinated people were nearly 3.7 times more likely to get infected in the Omicron households than in the Delta households, they found.
Looking only at Omicron households, however, booster-vaccinated people were 56% less likely to become infected compared to vaccinated people who had not received a booster. And overall, when booster-vaccinated people were the ones who first brought home the virus, they were less likely than unvaccinated and vaccinated-but-not-boosted people to pass it to others.

My thoughts too, like how can one more be a negative thing if the first two were not

Because the added benefit of a booster is less than the benefit of the first two?

The protection against serious illness does not wane much at 6 months, only the protection against infection, and the protection against infection from the booster against omicron is not particularly good anyway - and it fades quickly.

So almost all of the benefit has come from the first doses, the booster adds little. And of course there's always a risk with any vaccine, even a days worth side effects are probably not worth it, let alone the reduced immune response against other viruses you get.

Thank you for this Lyndal - do you have the link to that study so I can read it myself? Also do you know if Denmark used AZ at all?

In your case, I can totally see why you are reluctant, especially having not so mild adverse effect. You have vaccine + natural immunity, and still young.

When people have to wait 22 hours for an ambulance with a broken hip or give up and take someone who had a heart attack to hospital because an ambulance cant come I would do anything possible to help. So yes, I'd get a booster because you never know when that emergency care will be needed for your family.

I wouldn’t. I’m a bit older than you, healthy weight and in the same position and I’m not.

Honestly, you do you. If you don't want to get it then don't. If you want to wait for a bit, then wait. Ignore the pressure from people.

Haven't they just said that 90% of the people going into hospital, icu and dying are people without a booster.

I would get it 8-10 weeks after your Covid infection

@sirfredfredgeorge

My thoughts too, like how can one more be a negative thing if the first two were not

Because the added benefit of a booster is less than the benefit of the first two?

The protection against serious illness does not wane much at 6 months, only the protection against infection, and the protection against infection from the booster against omicron is not particularly good anyway - and it fades quickly.

So almost all of the benefit has come from the first doses, the booster adds little. And of course there's always a risk with any vaccine, even a days worth side effects are probably not worth it, let alone the reduced immune response against other viruses you get.

Could you post some actual evidence to support those statements you are making.

@Nappyvalley15

Thank you for this Lyndal - do you have the link to that study so I can read it myself? Also do you know if Denmark used AZ at all?

Denmark did- but they were the first European country to stop using it.

@Nappyvalley15

Thank you for this Lyndal - do you have the link to that study so I can read it myself? Also do you know if Denmark used AZ at all?

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.20.21267966v3

Thanks Lyndal. I would be interested to read that study. I also want to see research done in the UK (no doubt being worked on now) that takes into consideration our particular approach to the pandemic, such as planning an exit wave throughout the Summer.

Cross post
Thanks Lyndal

Could you post some actual evidence to support those statements you are making

www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccine-weekly-surveillance-reports