What are booster shots, you may ask?

Well first let’s talk about COVID-19 and its vaccines. According to WebMD, “in early 2020, after the outbreak in China, in December 2019. COVID-19 is a disease caused by SARS- CoV-2 can trigger respiratory tract infection.” There are now vaccines that you can get like Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnston & Johnston’s Janssen (J&J). Moderna and Pfizer are two dose vaccines and J&J is a one dose vaccine. Everybody is eligible for these COVID-19 vaccines. Now let’s talk about booster shots.

Booster shots are like an extra dose of a vaccine after the original dose is administered. 

What do they do? Booster shots are administered to remind the body’s immune system about the virus it needs to defend against. This improves or gives the immune system a boost. People who have underlying medical conditions can be eligible to get the booster shot for COVID-19. If you have medical conditions you are more at risk of getting a severe illness in COVID-19. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) thinks differently on how the booster shot will work on other people, the CDC says it helps people more who are at risk than other groups of people. People of different ages can get the booster shot. For example, people aged 65 years and older, 18 years and older of long-term care settings, people ages 50-64 years with underlying medical conditions, 18-49 years with underlying medical conditions, and people ages 18-64 years at increased risk of COVID-19 exposure and transmission. Well basically anyone 18 or older. There are many side effects that can happen and they are very common.  When getting the booster shot you can experience muscle and joint pain, chills, diarrhea, vomiting, and fever. As well as headaches, fatigue, nausea, and fever.

The booster shot helps the body remind them that they have a virus to defend. If you got the J&J vaccine The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) or the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommend people to get the booster shot two months after the vaccine. Something you may not know is…A vaccine helps protect us from dangerous viruses and bacteria. Once you have a shot (Moderna, J&J, or Pfizer) for a particular disease, you might think you’re always safe from it. For some diseases; COVID-19 you need another shot to build a strong immune system. That’s what a booster shot is made for.