CDC Director Mandy Cohen, MD, has approved a recommendation from the agency's advisory committee for adults over 65 to receive an updated 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine dose this spring.
"Today’s recommendation allows older adults to receive an additional dose of this season’s COVID-19 vaccine to provide added protection," Dr. Cohen said in a Feb. 28 update shared with Becker's. "Most COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations last year were among people 65 years and older. An additional vaccine dose can provide added protection that may have decreased over time for those at highest risk."
Nationwide, as of the most recently reported data, updated by the agency Feb. 17, COVID-19 test positivity, emergency department visits, hospitalizations and deaths were all trending down.
But experts do not recommend waiting on getting the jab.
"Waiting till the fall, I think, is a mistake," said Michael Osterholm, PhD, an infectious disease expert and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, told NBC News in a Feb. 15 report. "We have clear evidence that either vaccine or previous infection probably gives four to six months of relative protection against serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths, but wanes substantially after that."