What You Need to Know CDC recommends everyone stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccination, including all primary series doses and boosters for their age group: People ages 6 months through 4 years should get all COVID-19 primary series doses. People ages 5 years and older should get all primary series doses, and the booster dose recommended for them by CDC, if eligible. People ages 5 years to 11 years are currently recommended to get the original (monovalent) booster. People ages 12 years and older are recommended to receive one updated Pfizer or Moderna (bivalent) booster. This includes people who have received all primary series doses and people who have previously received one or more original (monovalent) boosters. At this time, people aged 12 years to 17 years can only receive the updated Pfizer bivalent booster.
Getting a COVID-19 vaccine after you recover from COVID-19 infection provides added protection against COVID-19.
People who are moderately or severely immunocompromised have different recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines, including boosters.
COVID-19 vaccine and booster recommendations may be updated as CDC continues to monitor the latest data.
About COVID-19 Vaccines
COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States are effective at protecting people from getting seriously ill, being hospitalized, and dying. As with other diseases, you are protected best from COVID-19 when you stay up to date with the recommended vaccines, including recommended boosters.
Four COVID-19 vaccines are approved or authorized in the United States to prevent COVID-19: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Novavax, and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen (J&J/Janssen). It’s recommended that the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine only be considered in some situations.
Updated COVID-19 boosters can both help restore protection that has decreased since previous vaccination, and provide broader protection against newer variants. The updated, or bivalent boosters, target the most recent Omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, that are more contagious and more resistant than earlier strains of Omicron.
When Are You Up to Date?
You are up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines if you have completed a COVID-19 vaccine primary series and received the most recent booster dose recommended for you by CDC.
Vaccine recommendations are based on your age, the vaccine you first received, and time since last dose. People who are moderately or severely immunocompromised have different recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines.
Children and teens ages 6 months–17 years
COVID-19 vaccine dosage is based on age on the day of vaccination, not on size or weight. Children get a smaller dose of COVID-19 vaccine than teens and adults based on the age group they belong to.
Adults ages 18 years and older
1 Talk to your healthcare or vaccine provider about the timing for the 2nd dose in your primary series.
People ages 6 months through 64 years , and especially males ages 12 through 39 years , may consider getting the 2nd primary dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna) 8 weeks after the 1st dose. A longer time between the 1st and 2nd primary doses may increase how much protection the vaccines offer, and further minimize the rare risk of myocarditis and pericarditis.
, , may consider getting the 2nd primary dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna) 8 weeks after the 1st dose. Anyone wanting protection due to high levels of community transmission, p eople ages 65 years and older, or people who are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19, should get the second dose of: Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine 3 weeks (or 21 days) after the first dose. Moderna COVID-19 vaccine 4 weeks (or 28 days) after the first dose. Novavax COVID-19 vaccine 3 weeks (or 21 days) after the first dose.
should get the second dose of:
2 If you have completed your primary series, but are not yet eligible for a booster, you are also considered up to date.