Pfizer’s and Moderna’s bivalent boosters, which are now available to many age groups, offer protection against the original COVID-19 virus plus the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants. Is the nation ready for yet another COVID-19 vaccine shot?
Given that many people have already received a vaccine series and booster, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deftly created step-by-step guidelines, including an easy-to-follow flow chart, on what people should do if they wish to add a bivalent booster to their personal arsenal of protection.
Do people have sufficient trust to get yet another shot? Testing of the bivalent boosters was done primarily on animals, not people, though there is no reason to believe that they are unsafe. What remains less clear is their potential effectiveness in the field.
