GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The FDA is now recommending booster shots for all three approved COVID-19 vaccines. This week the agency added recommendations for the Moderna vaccine, and most recently the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The two vaccines have now joined the Pfizer vaccine in getting FDA advisors’ approval to give booster shots. But, unlike Pfizer, it will still be about another week before shots are getting into arms.
Bellin Health’s Brad Burmeister says the Johnson & Johnson booster in particular is promising.
“Potentially giving your immune system a reminder of the J and J vaccine may boost it up the levels that exceed the two shot Moderna and Pfizer vaccine,” said Dr. Burmeister.
Both Pfizer and Moderna booster shots are recommended six months after the first dose. While the Johnson and Johnson booster is recommended two months after.
Once given final approval, all three booster shots are recommended for people 65 and older, those with underlying health conditions, people living in congregate settings, or working in environments with increased risk of exposure.
“If we can really target those people and boost up their immune system it’s really going to benefit our whole community,” said Dr. Brad Burmeister, an emergency doctor with Bellin Health. “Because we know COVID travels from person to person to person and we want to break that chain at any opportunity we potentially can.”
Doctors also want to remind people that you can get a flu shot the same time as your COVID-19 vaccine. That’s whether it is your first or second dose, or the booster.
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