CDC Recommends Spring COVID-19 Boosters

It’s time for people 65 and older to roll up their sleeves again for an additional Covid-19 shot this spring. This is the third year in a row that spring boosters will be offered, a sign of Covid-19’s continued and year-round transmission. Per the CDC, “Covid-19 hospitalizations are most common among people 65 and older; people 75 and older are most likely to die from the infection. Only about 40% of people 65 and older have received the 2023-2024 vaccine.”

The CDC published new guidance for Covid-19 and other respiratory illnesses, suggesting people who are sick stay at home until they are fever-free for 24 hours and their symptoms have been improving for the same period of time. The new guidance drops the recommendation to isolate for five days. Instead, the CDC says that, in the five days that follow, recovering people can be out and about in public but should take measures like masking and keeping distance from others to reduce the risk that they will spread their illness. The new approach has drawn criticism from people who feel that the guidance leaves people who are at highest risk of Covid-19 in an even more vulnerable situation.