'To protect you from future exposures, you want to have the best, well-equipped 'soldiers,' and the way our immune system does this is through this process of refinement in our lymph nodes,' Ellebedy says. Eventually, over time, through a process called B cell maturation, these B cells develop new antibodies that not only can recognize and neutralize the original variant of virus (which it saw in the vaccine) but also future variants, such as omicron. Special immune cells, called B cells, go into your lymph nodes and start to improve the potency of the antibodies. The level of these antibodies starts to go down after about a month, and then your body gets to work to 'train' these antibodies, Ellebedy says. 'That initial group isn't very well trained.' They especially aren't good at fighting off new coronavirus variants, says immunologist Ali Ellebedy at the Washington University School of Medicine. You see, right after your first two shots of the vaccine, your immune system rushes and makes a burst of antibodies. For your body to generate those specific antibodies, it takes time - at least three months after the first two shots. Improved immunity is not just about having more antibodies it's also about having the kind of antibodies that can actually take down omicron. How does a booster work to improve protection against a new variant like omicron? And why do we have to wait several months to get one? But if somebody is in the second half of the six-month time frame, and if they really feel like they would benefit from a higher level of protection, then I don't see a downside in getting boosted a bit earlier.' 4. 'For example, I wouldn't boost a month or two after the initial vaccine or vaccines. 'I wouldn't boost too much earlier,' he says. In fact, Germany's vaccine authority recently recommended that Germans get their boosters after three months in light of omicron.īut Barouch cautions against speeding up the booster too much. This is especially true for people who are at high risk for severe disease or live with someone who is. 'There is probably no harm in speeding up to boost antibodies,' she writes, just as long as you wait at least three months from the second shot. 'Zero, one and six months is what we use for so many three-dose vaccines.'īut with omicron about to surge, she says, getting a boost in antibodies earlier might be worth it. Monica Gandhi, who's an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, said in an email to NPR. The original six-month recommendation is based on 'the ideal spacing between three-dose vaccine regimens,' Dr. Daniel Barouch, who runs the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. 'In the setting of a new variant - and wanting a higher degree of protection for the holidays, then I do think that clinical judgment could involve boosting a bit earlier,' says Dr.

Booster