Can we overdo COVID-19 boosters? Here’s what researchers know

Federal authorities have approved a second COVID-19 booster shot for a total of four shots after full immunization. These vaccines have been approved for people over the age of 50 or people with pre-existing medical conditions.

If you keep an eye on the boosters, you’ll notice that the time between each injection has gotten shorter, from the predicted eight months to four months now.

Can you have too many boosters in your body? Will they ever become harmful?

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Researchers don’t have enough evidence to know what will happen if we continue to take boosters, but most think significant negative side effects are unlikely to occur. Still, there are some problems that might arise.

In a news conference, the head of vaccines strategy at the European Medicines Agency, Marco Caliveri, said taking booster shots every four months could impair immune response. “We are more concerned about a strategy that involves repeated vaccinations over a short period of time. We can’t really consistently do a booster dose every 3 or 4 months,” he said.

Studies on viruses like HIV show that T cells, which are responsible for protecting the body, become dysfunctional when repeatedly exposed to the same virus. Still, some researchers believe that’s not the case with COVID-19.

“T cells become dysfunctional when they repeatedly see antigen in certain contexts,” said Dr. Sarah Fortune, Professor at Harvard University. She makes it clear that HIV is different than COVID-19; In the latter case, people’s bodies are occasionally exposed to the virus when they get their shots or catch the disease. This situation is different from HIV, where the virus lives in people’s bodies for long periods of time, damaging T cells.

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Currently, the CDC recommends a booster dose at least 5 months after the last previous dose. People who are immunocompromised or over a certain age can get their shots four months after their last dose.

The rise of the Omicron variant is largely responsible for new waves of boosters. While the Booster is perfectly equipped to deal with earlier variants, Omicron is just different enough to sneak past a relatively protected immune system. With a new Omicron variant in the mix (BA.2), we’ll just have to wait and see how the virus reacts and whether or not infection rates skyrocket, prompting the relevant authorities to push for more boosters.