How Effective Is The COVID-19 Booster Shot Against The Omicron Variant?

As the Omicron COVID variant continues to spread rapidly, healthcare professionals and public health advocates continue to urge the unvaccinated to find a clinic. They’re also emphasizing the importance of boosters, even for those who have already received a complete round of vaccine doses.

How effective is a booster shot against Omicron? Are regular COVID vaccines already being outpaced by this latest COVID mutation? Should you make finding one for yourself a priority?

How Does The Shot Protect Against the Omicron Variant?

An mRNA vaccine triggers an immune response^[1]. 

mRNA stands for messenger ribonucleic acid; these foreign ambassadors “teach”^[2] the cells in our bodies how to combat the disease or virus from which this mRNA was derived, also known as “spike” protein, all without an army of active, angry intruders to deal with. 

It’s sort of like getting the chickenpox; once you’ve had them, you won’t ever have to worry about getting them again. Your body “remembers” how to win against COVID through a vaccine, all without being exposed to something truly deadly and destructive.

How exactly do our cells remember, long after the vaccine has dissipated within us?

When we receive our first round of COVID vaccines, a special class of immune memory cells stores this information for the future^[3], allowing your body to call upon it in the future. 

The question then becomes: how long is the body able to remember a specific virus? Does its ability to remember wane with time? Some experts believe that it does.

A COVID booster is able to “remind” the body, a rush of fresh specimens that jog this hidden humoral and cellular immune memory. Now, the body is much less likely to be taken by surprise in the event of an impromptu infection.

Booster shot recipients have been shown clinically^[4] to be much less prone to COVID infection of any kind, Omicron or otherwise.

What The Experts Says

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention^[5], coronavirus booster shots should be something that even fully-vaccinated adults should seek out actively. 

Eligible adults include anybody over the age of eighteen^[6], those sixty-five or older especially. For Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine recipients, you should get a booster six months after your final dose; those who went with Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine might need to check back in much sooner, two months after administration.

The CDC recommends that, before receiving a booster shot, the patient should first receive the entirety of their original COVID vaccination series. In fact, the immunocompromised are even encouraged to extend this first round of vaccination with an additional primary shot before receiving their first booster at all.

The order of operations here is vital: your original vaccination regime establishes this base of biological knowledge. Without this foundation, or in the case of a foundation that is incomplete, a booster might not make the same splash that it would under ideal circumstances.

With each booster shot, a well-armed body’s defense system is reinvigorated and well-prepared for an onslaught. Only time will tell just how effective this approach will be against Omicron in the future and COVID variants to come; as of right now, though, the evidence in favor of a booster shot^[7] appears to be more than valid.

What Are the Side Effects of the Omicron Booster Vaccine?

After receiving any COVID-19 vaccine, you might find your body reeling, but these side effects are usually nothing to worry about^[8]. As with any vaccine, your body is reacting to the injection as it would in the case of a live viral invasion. These side effects will generally be mild; you’ll be off your feet for no longer than a day.

After receiving a booster vaccine, you may experience some of the same^[9], especially if you reacted poorly to any of your primary doses:

• Fever
• Fatigue
• Headache
• Muscle soreness, especially around the area of injection
• Chills
• Nausea

Allergic reactions to mRNA vaccines are incredibly uncommon, but if you suspect that you’re at risk, the CDC suggests seeking an alternative version of the vaccine^[10]; this will be the case even if you have not completed your first round of vaccine doses in its entirety. 

If you notice any of the severe symptoms listed below within four hours after receiving a vaccine or a booster shot, consult your doctor immediately:

• Hives
• Swelling
• Itchy rashes, or “COVID arm”
• Wheezing, or difficulty breathing

Many vaccination sites will offer patient monitoring for thirty minutes after administration. Individuals with no history of vaccine allergy or anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction, should be able to sit through every dose and booster without incident.

Should You Get a COVID Booster Shot?

Over 200 million Americans are currently vaccinated fully; 50 million are already covered by their first COVID booster. As time rolls on and more vaccinations fall out of date, this topic will only become more contentious and important.  

Currently, one in four polled American adults say that they’re going to pass on the Omicron booster shot. If you count yourself among them, you might want to dive deeper into the matter, especially if you work in an industry that exposes you to COVID infection on a regular basis.

When it comes to the coronavirus, one thing that we’ve learned is that nothing is ever guaranteed. If the facts give you pause, we recommend consulting your physician. The CDC stands firmly by COVID boosters as one of the most effective ways to prevent an Omicron infection.

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