Learn More: What You Need to Know About COVID-19 Vaccines for Older Adults (Age 65+)

The best protection against COVID-19 is to be up to date with your vaccines.  You are up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines if you have gotten your primary series of COVID-19 shots and a bivalent booster (the updated booster).

FDA Approvals (as of March 2023)

Primary Series:  As of March 2023, the FDA has fully authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. The FDA has provided emergency use authorization for the Novavax and Johnson & Johnson/Janssen (J&J) vaccines.

Updated Bivalent Booster: The bivalent COVID-19 vaccines protect us against two different strains of COVID-19. The only COVID-19 bivalent booster vaccines approved by the FDA (September 8, 2022) are the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna (age 5+) bivalent vaccines.

Staying up to date with the COVID-19 vaccination will protect you and others against the virus

COVID-19 is the disease caused by a highly infectious virus called SARS-CoV-2. Sometimes cases of COVID-19 can be mild, but others can be more severe and even deadly. This is especially true for older adults or people with chronic health conditions. One in 100 older Americans have died from COVID-19 disease. 75% of all COVID-19 deaths in the United States have been among adults 65 years or older. 

You are up to date with the COVID-19 vaccine if you have completed a primary series of COVID-19 shots and received the bivalent booster shot recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Staying up to date with the COVID-19 vaccine has many benefits:

  •  It will lower your risk of getting sick if you are exposed to the coronavirus.
    • Even if you are up to date with the vaccine, it is still possible to get COVID-19. However, data from real-world use of COVID-19 vaccines shows that vaccination substantially lowers the risk of becoming seriously ill if you do get infected.
  • It helps protect the people you are around, especially people with a higher risk of getting seriously ill from COVID-19. This includes older people and people with chronic, underlying conditions.

People who are immunocompromised or take medicine that affects the immune system are at higher risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19. It is especially important for immunocompromised people to stay up to date on their vaccines.

Last Updated March 2023