Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House medical adviser for the coronavirus, recently explained that it could be dangerous for you to get your COVID-19 vaccine booster shot early.
Fauci told MSNBC on Thursday that getting your third shot too early won’t allow your body time to adapt to the vaccine.
“If you get a prime and then a booster ... you get the maximum effect of a late boost if you give the immune system a chance” to adapt to the vaccine, he told MSNBC.
Fauci said you won’t stop people from getting a new COVID-19 vaccine shot. But health officials can recommend when they should get their next shot.
That’s why U.S. health officials said people should get their third dose of the vaccine eight months after their second shot. They need time to adapt to the first two doses.
And, when you look at the data, the people who got their vaccines first were people who needed the vaccine the most. It’s time for those people to get that next boost to keep them safe, Fauci said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said fully vaccinated Americans can get their COVID-19 booster shots about eight months after they got their second shot, The Associated Press reports.
This only applies to those who got the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. However, officials said J&J recipients will need an extra shot, but it’s unclear when that will be available, per The Associated Press.
Health care workers, residents of nursing homes and older adults will be first in line to get the next round of shots. Those booster doses will start being offered on Sept. 20, per The Associated Press.