Mix and Match: COVID Booster Shots

As of Oct. 29, the FDA authorized the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric COVID-19 vaccine on children between the ages of five and 11 years old. This opens up the COVID vaccine to 28 million more people in the United States, and the first doses were administered on Nov. 3. The pediatric version contains just a third as much mRNA as its adult counterpart, but it is otherwise nearly identical.

In addition to the approval of the COVID-19 vaccine for ages five to eleven, both the FDA and the CDC have authorized a mix-and-match option for booster shots from Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer.

According to Dr. Gregory Poland, head of Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group, “What mix-and-mix means is that regardless of what you got for your primary series, you could get any of the other three vaccines available for use in the U.S. as your booster.”

When deciding what booster vaccine to choose, Dr. Poland explains that it is wise to look at your immune response from your previous dosages. Nonetheless, all of the boosters will greatly boost antibody response.