COVID-19 Vaccine and Booster Information

There currently are four vaccines authorized for use by the Food and Drug Administration for adults for the primary series. Two are messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines that are produced by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech. Both vaccines are administered in two doses. You should get your second shot as close to the recommended three-week or four-week interval as possible. Please note: the CDC now mentions persons 6 months to 64 years, and especially males ages 12-39, may consider getting the second primary dose 8 weeks after the first dose rather than 21 or 28 days. This may increase immune protection and minimize the rare risk of myocarditis. A third vaccine is a one-dose vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson and a fourth vaccine is by Novavax using a standard methodology and requires two doses. At this time both the mRNA and Novavax vaccines are preferred due to greater efficacy.

With the variants continuing to spread and new variants possible at any time, it remains critical that:

• For people who are not yet vaccinated it is preferred to receive the two-dose Moderna vaccine, two-dose Pfizer vaccine or two-dose Novavax vaccine.
• Everyone ages 5 years and older should get one Bivalent booster after completing their COVID-19 vaccine primary series, if eligible.
• Adults ages 50 years and older and some people ages 12 years and older who are moderately or severely immunocompromised should consider an additional dose of the vaccine for the primary series to be followed by the bivalent booster. Recently both mRNA vaccines were developed for a bivalent ‘booster.’  This vaccine targets both the original SARS-CoV-2 strain and the Omicron variant and should provide enhanced protection. People ages 12 years and older should receive one updated (bivalent) booster if it has been at least two months since their last COVID-19 vaccine dose, whether that was:
  • Their final primary series dose, or
  • An original (monovalent) booster

People who have had more than one original (monovalent) booster are also recommended to get an updated (bivalent) booster.

Additional information regarding the ODH COVID – 19 Vaccination Program is available at vaccine.coronavirus.ohio.gov.

State of Ohio | COVID-19 Vaccine Administration Locations